


It doesn't always have to be you, but it always is

by RelentlassHuggerSquad



Category: Professional Wrestling, WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: 4hw are the best friend squad, Angst and Feels, Bayley would be Glimmer, Becky would be bow, Charlotte is She-Ra, Charsha love/hate friendship is the real love story here, Gen, Sasha is Catra, she-ra au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2021-01-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:55:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 48,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24228433
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RelentlassHuggerSquad/pseuds/RelentlassHuggerSquad
Summary: Charlotte is on track to be the youngest force captain in the Horde until she finds a glowing sword in the Whisper Wood, that grants her the powers of She-Ra. Now everything that she has ever known turns out to be a lie, and the people she thought were once her enemies are now her friends.Except she already has a friend named Sasha, who isn't going to take Charlotte's betrayal to the rebellion lightly. Sasha has always been the other side of Charlotte, the yin to her yang, but now they are out of sync and on a collision course.Princess Bayley and her best friend Becky are just trying to keep the rebellion going and trying to turn the tide of the war to save Etheria. But the former Princess Alliance is in shambles, and what's with the giant blonde that just stumbled into their lives claiming to be She-Ra the Princess of Power?Who will win the war for Etheria in the end?(A retelling of She-ra but with the 4hw and other WWE characters.)
Relationships: Bayley | Davina Rose & Becky Lynch | Rebecca Knox, Sasha Banks & Charlotte
Comments: 69
Kudos: 12





	1. The Horde

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LiteratureLocker](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiteratureLocker/gifts).



_Serve the Horde.  
Obey Hordak’s commands.   
Don't question orders.  
Destroy the Rebellion and the Princess Alliance _

It wasn’t a particularly difficult set of rules but all Horde Cadets had them memorized by heart. Charlotte thrived under the routine of being in the Horde. Being a part of the Horde meant having a family, having a place to call home, it was the only place that Charlotte had ever known. It required a certain amount of discipline, but Charlotte had always been athletic and eager to please. Her willingness to do whatever it took to stand out and excel, often brought a lot of praise and accolades her way. 

The tall, muscled, blonde soldier was well on her way to becoming one of the youngest force captains in the Horde. A lot of the other recruits her age teased her that she was hand-picked for success and maybe that was true. Hordak’s top force captain Ruby Riott had often selected Charlotte to run errands and assist in training the other Horde recruits. 

Serving the Horde and obeying Hordak was supposed to make her life easier, training to squash Hordak’s enemies was what had gotten Charlotte up every morning. That sense of purpose was what drove her to work harder than everybody else. She wanted to prove that she deserved to lead, she wanted to make her superiors proud of her. 

Charlotte had heard what the Princesses Alliance and leaders of the rebellion against the Horde were trying to do. She had heard the horror stories of what they had done to innocent townspeople who stood against them, how the rebellion used their powers to brainwash civilians into joining them. Sure things weren’t always bright and cheerful in the Horde, but Charlotte had always counted on the stability it brought her. 

Sasha, who was a fellow recruit and Charlotte best’s friend, had often gloated that one day she would be the one to bring down the Princess Alliance and end the rebellion for good. Charlotte was grateful for Sasha’s friendship, but also for her constant need to be the best. There was nobody else in the Horde that pushed Charlotte to be her best like Sasha. They were constantly competing for everything, whether it be in sparring or even eating. It was this competitiveness that drove Charlotte to be at the top of her game, which meant getting to the training facility before the rest of the recruits. 

Charlotte had been warming up in the locker room when she found herself being summoned over the intercom to the training simulation area. Wiping the sweat out of her eyes, Charlotte threw her hair up into a ponytail and straightened her uniform. She tried to make it as pristine as possible, not wanting to risk provoking one of the force captains or Hordak himself. 

Before she even got to the room, she could hear squadron assembling, which meant that her friends Sasha, Dana, Naomi, Finn, and AJ would be waiting for her. They were a formidable unit, often fighting like a well-oiled machine. The group was composed of the people that Charlotte was closest to in the Fright Zone. 

She shot them a small nod as she took her place formation. She could feel the others giving her a curious look, but nobody spoke at first. Hordak’s second in command had appeared in front of them and was briefing them about their next mission. According to the second in command, they were going to be accessed on the mission and judged on how well they completed their task. Charlotte seemed to notice that Sasha was missing from her usual spot next to her.

“Hey Naomi, where’s Sasha?” Charlotte asked in a hiss. 

Naomi gave a shrug. “I didn’t see her in the dormitory earlier. I figured she was with you.” She whispered quietly in reply. 

Charlotte groaned in frustration, cursing under her breath. Sasha was a talented fighter, probably one of the best purely gifted individuals in the Horde. What Sasha lacked was the ability to stay out of trouble and keep her mouth shut. If there was a way to piss off the higher-ups, then Sasha always found it. 

Trying to push her concern for Sasha out of her mind, Charlotte’s blue eyes narrowed in on the woman who was pacing in front of them. Senior Force Captain Ruby Riott was a scary enough threat on her own, but with Hordak’s backing, nobody dared step out of line with her. The Force Captain was reading from a tablet, her expression a mixture of boredom and barely concealed irritation. 

“You have done well recently cadets but this next challenge is going to take you to your limits. This training simulation is going to help you prepare for what you’ll face outside of the Fright Zone. Once you’re past the Whispering Woods and into Etheria, you will need to be prepared for all the dirty tricks that the rebellion will throw at you. This is a simulation of an attack on Bright Moon, the center of the rebellion’s strength. ” Ruby raged, turning her full attention to Charlotte’s squadron. She seemingly noticed that Sasha was missing. 

“Where is Cadet Sasha?” Ruby asked, her irritation now prevalent. She had been the butt of many of Sasha’s jokes and hadn’t forgiven the young recruit. 

“She will be here soon. Don’t worry.” Charlotte said, flashing what she hoped was a reassuring smile. 

Ruby snorted and rolled her eyes. “Prepare for the simulation, you must liberate Bright Moon from the rebels. The rebels are going to take you out if given the chance, so don’t give it to them. Hordak is watching, the simulation starts in thirty seconds.” Ruby called, as the door opened behind her. “Good luck recruits.” 

Charlotte took a deep breath, hoping Sasha would get there sooner rather than later. She tried to push those thoughts away and turned to the rest of her Squadron. “Come on, we can do this! For Hordak!” She called, leading the charge into the simulation. 

\----

About five minutes into the exercise and Charlotte was already sweating. Hordak was always updating the bots that they fought against, making them tougher to prepare his recruits and soldiers for the different enemies they would face. Charlotte was handy with a multitude of the horde-issued weapons, but she was definitely a fan of the grenades. 

She could see a large training bot heading her way and quickly unclipped grenade from her belt, throwing it at the machine. Distantly around the room, she could hear the rest of her squadron fighting with the other bots. Some of the bots had been crudely designed to look like the members of the Princess Alliance. Charlotte would have laughed at the caricatures if she hadn’t been busy, trying to avoid getting crushed by one of the robots. 

Charlotte dove out of the way, as Naomi and AJ sent one of the bots tumbling backward in her direction. Charlotte gave them a dirty look and was about to yell at them for not being careful but an explosion on the other side of the training room caught her attention. Charlotte watched in horror as one of the robots shot both Dana and Finn in the chest-plates of their armor. 

“Dang it, Finn!” Charlotte snapped, watching as a large x appeared on his armor, signaling that he was out of the training simulation. A similar x appeared on Dana’s as well. “Come on, we gotta go.” Charlotte tapped her other two friends on the shoulder and gestured for them to follow her. 

It wasn’t ideal to only have three members of a squad finish a training exercise and no doubt Hordak would be less than thrilled, but Charlotte tried to pretend she didn’t care. Finishing her task with just Naomi and AJ was better than not finishing at all. 

“We can still get out of here,” Charlotte said, trying to hurry to the end of the training room. Naomi was half a step behind her when Charlotte heard a clicking noise. She glanced back to see that AJ had stepped on a sort of pressure plate. Without hesitation Charlotte spun and dove back towards him, pushing him off of the plate as a giant bot fell from the ceiling.

This bot was larger than all the others and its headpiece was sculpted to look like the Queen of Brightmoon, and Hordak’s biggest enemy. Charlotte had done her research on the enemies of the horde and she knew that Queen Stephanie was the biggest threat of all. The leader of the Princess Alliance was one of the strongest magic users in all of Etheria. 

The laser canon on the bot’s shoulder focused on Charlotte before firing on her since she was closest. Charlotte narrowly ducked out of the way and activated her metal staff, as she rolled to her feet charging the bot. She wasn’t sure if Naomi or AJ were up, her friend had landed with a grunt when she tackled him to safety, but she hoped he was okay. 

Charlotte picked up her pace and slide between the robot’s legs, sweeping them out with her metal staff. As the machine fell, Charlotte jumped on top of it and spun her staff and bashed the laser canons off of it, before driving her staff through its camera eye. Suddenly the bot began to quake, causing Charlotte to use her balance. She tried to jump off the bot as the floor opened up underneath it, causing it to fall through the ground and into a pit. 

She barely managed to grab on to the edge of the massive crater that was now on the floor. She was struggling to pull herself out of it when she heard a familiar laugh. 

“Hey, Charlotte.” A shadow loomed over the edge of the pit. “ Are you just hanging out being lazy?” 

Charlotte grunted and she stared up into the eyes of a clearly smug Sasha. “Nice of you to show up.” She muttered, still struggling to pull herself out of the pit. 

Sasha smirked and knelt down grabbing hold of Charlotte’s wrist and dragging her out of the pit. Despite being smaller than Charlotte, Sasha was deceptively strong. She also managed to annoy the blonde and get under her skin like nobody else. “You’re welcome, Charlie,” Sasha said with a wink, before letting go of the blonde and running towards the end of the training exercise to win it for them. 

Charlotte watched her go and just shook her head. She was used to Sasha’s antics by now, but part of her wished that her friend would take things more seriously. She told Sasha as much when they were in the locker room changing later. 

“You know if you want to make Force Captain, you have to show Hordak and Ruby that you can play by the rules,” Charlotte warned. She knew that Sasha normally balked at having to follow orders, but that having her own position of leadership was important to the shorter girl. 

Sasha rolled her eyes and slumped back against the lockers. “Why does it matter if I play by the rules, I can make my own rules. I am rather adept at making stuff up as I go.” Sasha grumbled. 

Charlotte frowned at her friend, but she knew that arguing with her was pointless. Once Sasha made her mind up about something, she was insanely stubborn. She had once gotten irked about something Charlotte had done and refused to talk to her for over a week, even though it meant flunking some of their training exercises. Sasha’s competitiveness was matched only by her ability to hold a grudge. 

Sasha studied her before sighing, she hated when Charlotte gave her that concerned look. “Look, I’ll try not to be as late to the next training exercise,” Sasha said in way of compromise. “No promises though, because it's funny when you look all irritated.” 

Charlotte was about to respond when the door to the locker room flung open and another one of Hordak’s top captains walked in. Vickie Guerrero was not exactly a force captain, but she was a trusted advisor to Hordak. She possessed a kind of magic that had been helping the Horde for longer than Charlotte could remember. 

“Charlotte.” Vickie purred, giving her an approving once over. “I was very impressed with the way that you handled yourself today. It was quite the show, Hordak was impressed as well.” 

“Of course he was,” Sasha muttered, barely containing a scoff. 

Vickie’s eyes narrowed in on Sasha. “Excuse me? What was that Cadet Sasha?” 

Sasha’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t dare mouth off to Vickie again. She could already see the older woman’s hands starting to glow black with dark magic. “Nothing.” 

Vickie raised a hand and a cloud of dark magic wrapped around Sasha’s throat slamming her back against the locker. “You should know by now to not back sass your superiors cadet. I noticed that you were late to the training simulation, perhaps if you were more like Charlotte, you would be a future force captain.” Vickie spat. 

Charlotte paled and looked away from Sasha, struggling with herself not to intervene. “You were watching us today?” Charlotte asked, desperate to draw Vickie’s attention back to herself and away from Sasha. She didn’t want to see Sasha tortured again. 

Her diversion seemed to do the trick as the dark magic dissipated from around Sasha’s throat. Vickie turned her whole attention to Charlotte and actually smiled. “Yes, I was watching you. Come take a walk with me, dearie, we need to discuss your promotion as a force captain.” With that, the older woman walked from the room, not even waiting to see if Charlotte was following her. 

For a moment, Charlotte was stunned. She, of course, wanted to be a force captain, she was one of the most senior cadets, but she had assumed that there were others in the Horde that were ahead of her in the promotion line. She had dreamed about it for a long time, but even as the idea of seeing her dream realized dawned on her, she could see disappointment flickering across Sasha’s face. 

“Are you okay?” Charlotte asked, reaching out to touch Sasha’s face, but the shorter girl batted her hands away. 

“Don’t touch me, I don’t need your pity,” Sasha snapped, fire flickering in her gaze. She stared at Charlotte as if she saw right through her, but quickly the fiery evaporated from her and was replaced with a look of indifference. “Guerrero is waiting for you, go see about your promotion Force Captain Charlotte.” Sasha forced a smile, clearly trying to fake being happy for the blonde. 

Charlotte felt unsure but she knew better than to keep Vickie waiting. “I’ll see you later than Sasha. Maybe we could hang out and celebrate.” 

“Sure,” Sasha said though she didn’t sound convincing at all. It was only after Charlotte left, that Sasha sank to the floor of the locker room and rubbed her sore neck. She wasn't about to let Charlotte of all people see her in pain.


	2. The sword part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Princess Bayley of Brightmoon has to deal with her ovebearing mother. While Sasha and Charlotte take an adventure into the whispering woods where Charlotte finds a sword.

-In the beautiful Castle of Brightmoon-    


Princess Bayley of Brightmoon took a nervous breath, taking a moment to make sure her uniform was correct and she looked put together. Getting called to the throne room to see her mother wasn’t usually a bad thing, but considering why she was being called in, Bayley was a bit apprehensive. Really in her opinion, it wasn’t her fault that she had stayed behind to save a village from falling into the hands of the Horde. It was what anybody would have done, but she knew her mother wasn’t going to be pleased. 

Queen Stephanie of Brightmoon was well respected, regal, and poised, yet somehow she had the ability to make Bayley feel like a scared child. She could hear her mother’s accented voice telling the guards to send her in. Bayley felt her heart sink lurch to her throat and she sighed. Her mother tried too hard sometimes and was often overprotective treating Bayley like a child, it was irritating. 

Squaring her shoulders and holding her head high, Bayley marched into the golden and shiny throne room. She could see her mother on the throne, looking at her with a strange mixture of emotions. Slowly Bayley lowered herself down to a knee, giving herself a mental pep talk. 

“Your majesty, you summoned me?” Bayley asked, trying to keep her tone deferential despite what she was feeling. She could hear her mother’s guards shifting uncomfortably, no doubt aware of the family dispute that was brewing.

“Do you want to tell me why I got a report that you disobey a direct order to retreat?” It was evident now that Queen Stephanie was going to jump straight to why she had summoned Bayley. 

Bayley lifted her head from where she had been looking at the ground. “I was trying to save a rebellion village outpost from being overrun.” Bayley insisted. 

“By foolishly engaging our forces in a combat scenario against the Horde?” The Queen of Brightmoon did not at all seem amused by her daughter’s words. “You acted impulsively Bayley, you can’t risk yourself or the other rebels so carelessly. It’s too dangerous!” She snapped, folding her arms across her chest. 

“We are in a war mom, things are going to be dangerous. All we are doing is retreating, we have to stand our ground sometime,” Bayley protested, rising to her feet. She knew her mom was speaking from a place of trying to protect her rather than actually being angry. Bayley was frustrated, her mother had made her a commander in the rebellion, but it felt like an empty title. Anytime Bayley actually tried to command or lead, her mother would get angry. 

Stephanie rose to her feet, large wings sprouting from her back. She didn’t appreciate that her daughter was insinuating that she was a coward. “I have been fighting the Horde longer than you have been alive. I think I know more about this war than you do Bayley.” 

Bayley scowled and glanced to the ground. “You made me a commander but you won’t let me fight. You can’t keep protecting me all the time mom. If we keep retreating, we won’t have anything left of Etheria to defend.” 

“I am growing tired of you not following orders. Back talking to your queen is not the way to show that you’re ready to lead Commander Bayley.” Stephanie chided, trying to get Bayley to back down. “I’ve had enough, you’re grounded, Bayley.” 

Bayley’s eyes widened and her fist balled at her side. “You can’t be serious.” She couldn’t believe that her mom was now treating her like a child in front of the royal court. Her mother would have never treated any of the other commanders like that. 

Stephanie’s eyes narrowed as she descended from her throne until she stood right in front of Bayley. She reached to place a hand on her shoulder. “I am doing this to protect you, go to your room.” 

“With your leave,” Bayley growled sarcastically. Anger radiated from the princess in suffocating waves. She was about to say something rather cruel and so instead she grabbed her cloak and turned, stalking out of the throne room. If her mother was going to treat her like a child, then she was going to act like one. 

\-----

\- Back in the Fright Zone- 

Charlotte stood up on a catwalk, far away from the other cadets and members of the Horde. She stared down at the force captain’s badge in her hands and sighed. She had wanted this all her life, it had been the only thing she could think of, and yet somehow it felt cheapened. She knew that she should feel on top of the world, but all she was thinking about was how gutted Sasha was going to look when she saw it. She had seen the disappointment on Sasha’s face earlier when Vickie had talked about the promotion and she didn’t want to rub it in her friend’s face. 

She pinned the badge to her uniform and forced a smile. She was proud of herself and she wanted to be happy for herself, even if she had to celebrate the victory alone. Charlotte tapped her knuckles against the badge and gave a happy sigh. She had done it, she was actually a force commander. Someday she could lead her squadron into battle and could prove to Vickie and Hordak that her group was the best and worthy of missions like taking down the Rebellion and the Princess Alliance stronghold of Brightmoon. 

Vickie had informed her that one of her first tasks would be crossing the Whispering Wood to take out some of the Rebellion’s outposts, and that if she could do that then she’d have a bright future. Charlotte definitely wanted to prove herself, she knew that if she could succeed, then she’d have more sway with the Horde’s leadership. 

Charlotte turned to walk back to the dormitory when she was tackled abruptly to the ground. She grunted and stared up at Sasha who was now sitting on her chest, eyes wild. “What are you doing Sash?” 

Sasha ignored her. “What did Vickie say, come on tell me!” Sasha pleaded. She noticed Charlotte’s new badge and tapped her nails against it. “It looks good on you Charlotte.” If the blonde hadn’t known her as well, she wouldn’t have noticed that Sasha sounded almost wistful. 

Charlotte placed her hands on Sasha’s thighs and gently tried to push her friend off of her chest. Sasha obliged but only after she snatched the badge and leaped away from Charlotte. Sasha was a great climber and far more agile than the taller girl, so she easily swung herself up on a pipe and then on a vent, so she was far out of Charlotte’s grasp. 

“I can’t believe you actually got a promotion. Vickie actually promoted you. ” Sasha said in disbelief, as she inspected the badge closer. She was trying to get the bitterness out of her tone. She was happy for Charlotte, even if there was a piece of her that was jealous. 

“Come on Sasha, give it back.” Charlotte knew she couldn’t climb the vents as easily as Sasha, it would have been stupid to try. “It’s not really a big deal.” She said trying to downplay the significance of what it meant. 

Sasha scoffed and slid down from the vents. She pinned the badge back on her friend’s uniform and rolled her eyes. “You got a promotion Charlie, it’s a big freakin deal. We’re gonna get to finally leave the fright zone and conquer those stupid princesses.” Sasha said, trying to see the bright side. Optimism wasn’t her strongest suit, but she was doing her best. 

Charlotte felt like she had gotten punched in the gut. During her talk with Vickie after getting promoted, the woman had told her that the promotion only meant Charlotte was getting called up. The blonde was intent on smoothing over any offenses so that the rest of her squadron could be called up, but she hadn’t done that yet. Besides Vickie was still miffed at Sasha, which meant it would take some time for those wounds to heal.

“Um...about that,” Charlotte found herself unable to look Sasha in her eyes. “You and the others don’t get to leave the Fright Zone yet.” 

Sasha’s eyes widened. “Excuse me? I had just as good of a time on the trials as you today. I saved you from falling in the hole.” Sasha protested, looking offended that she was being relegated to just another foot soldier. “Vickie and Hordak are just doing this to spite me and teach me a lesson. That isn’t fair! I’m just as good as you!!”

“Well you aren’t always respectful to your superiors Sasha. You had a good time on the trials, but you showed up late. You know Hordak and Vickie only care about tradition and having everybody fall in line.” Charlotte pointed out, trying to soften her words. It didn’t work though as they seemed to hit Sasha like a ton of bricks. 

“Why should I respect them, I’m always forced to be in your shadow?! Nothing I do is ever going to be good enough for them, why should I try to break through the glass ceiling when they’ve already made up their minds about me?” Sasha fumed. She clenched her fist so hard her nails began to dig into her palms. She was just as good as Charlotte was, but somehow the superiors had decided that she wasn’t the chosen one. “Maybe I’d have a better chance if I sucked up to everybody as you do.” Sasha spat, focusing her anger at Charlotte. It was easier to lash out at her friend, then Vickie and Hordak. 

Charlotte’s eyes darkened, her temper flaring to life. “Now wait for a second Sasha, I’m not a people pleaser and I don’t suck up to Vickie or Hordak. Maybe if you quit being difficult you’d get a promotion too!” She argued, shaking her head. She was used to Sasha’s moods but that didn’t mean she wanted to be lashed out at. 

Sasha apparently didn’t want to hear it. She turned her back on Charlotte and walked away shaking her head as she began to scale the pipes and vents so that she could get easier access to the roof. 

Watching her best friend go Charlotte sighed, knowing that she had upset her. That hadn’t been her intention, but Sasha had been pushing her buttons. She waited a few moments, trying to give Sasha time too cool off. Confronting an angry Sasha was only going to make them both say things that they didn’t mean. 

A while later, Charlotte made her way up to the roof of the dormitory. Of all the places that Sasha could hide, this was the shorter girl’s favorite place to go and think. Whenever one of them was trouble, they’d always come up here to watch the sunset over the Fright Zone. Charlotte could see Sasha sitting on the ledge, still sulking over their earlier argument and deep in thought. 

“Sasha, can we talk?” Charlotte watched as Sasha tensed at the sound of her voice, her body going rigid. “I am sorry about what I said. I didn’t realize that being a force captain meant so much to you. I wasn’t trying to rub it in your face, and I shouldn’t have said the things that I did.” 

Sasha drew her knees to her chest, still not looking at Charlotte. “It doesn’t matter Charlie.” She mumbled, sounding very much like the wounded teenager she was. 

“Please don’t shut me out Sash.” The blonde moved to sit next to the dark-haired girl and glanced down at her Force Captain’s badge. “All I’ve ever wanted was to be a Force Captain, I’ve worked so hard for this. I played by the rules just so I could be a leader someday.” She was desperate to try and get Sasha to see where she was coming from. She wanted her friend to be happy for her. 

Sasha cast a sideways glance at Charlotte and then rolled her eyes skyward. “It’s not even about being a Force Captain. I just want out of the Fright Zone, I want to know what’s out there. I feel like I’ve been stuck here forever, I want to actually do something.” Sasha explained. She was happy for Charlotte even if it was hidden under all the envious feelings. 

Slowly Charlotte pulled a key from her belt. “Well there’s only one thing I think of to fix that. Why don’t we go find out what’s out there.” Charlotte wasn’t one to steal a Horde air vehicle, but she wanted to make it up to Sasha and lift her best friend’s spirits. 

“Wait for a second, seriously?” Sasha asked, her eyes lighting up. “Ms. Play-By-The-Rules is gonna steal a vehicle?” 

"I prefer the term, borrow a vehicle." Charlotte gave a coy smile. “If we hurry, they won’t even know we’re gone.” 

Sasha launched herself at the tall blonde and hugged her tightly. “Okay, okay I take back every mean thing I’ve ever thought about you! You’re the best Charlie.” Sasha said snatching the keys. “The last one to the vehicle is a rotten egg.” 

Charlotte laughed and just followed her friend. She was glad to see her in a better mood, she hated seeing Sasha sulking. A few minutes later the Horde Duo found themselves aboard one of the Skiffs, driving away from the Fright Zone and towards the Whisper Woods. 

“Let me drive!” Sasha said, shoving at Charlotte who so far had basically taken over the controls. 

Charlotte was a bit hesitant but reluctantly allowed Sasha to take control of the skiff. “Please don’t crash, we’re just borrowing this. If we wreck it, Hordak and Vickie will skin us alive.” Charlotte warned, not at all joking. 

Sasha didn’t care too busy watching the orange and yellows of the fright zone, bleed away to lighter colors. She could see the trees in the distance, beautiful hues of green and blue. She pressed the throttle forward, causing the skiff to pick up speed. 

“Hey, save us some gas to get back.” Charlotte reminded. She had done this to make Sasha feel better, but she still didn’t want to get them into trouble.

“Oh come on, don’t be a buzz kill. That’s a problem for later.” Sasha said letting out a whoop as she caused the air vehicle to pick up speed again. 

Charlotte fought to get control of the ship back, back Sasha managed to strong-arm her and hold her off. As they got closer to the woods, Sasha slowed down trying to navigate the vehicle through the thick canopy. 

“I never thought I’d see the woods.” Sasha had never actually left the Fright Zone so this was all new to her. The woods were different than she had imagined. 

Charlotte gulped feeling a bit nervous. “They always say that every Horde Squadron that’s been in here hasn’t come back. That the Whispering Woods is haunted.” She said keeping her voice low. 

Sasha puffed out her chest and shrugged. “I’m not scared.” She said boldly. 

Scoffing, Charlotte fixed her with a look. “Right.” She muttered sarcastically. “Is that why your knees are shaking?” 

“Shut up,” Sasha grumbled under her breath. She was desperate to prove herself so she sped the skiff up again. “I’ll show you, we’ll be the first Horde soldiers to go in and come back out.” She mused before Charlotte could argue. 

Much to the blonde’s chagrin, Sasha began to narrowly weave the ship in and out of the trees, breaking a few branches as she went. Charlotte was going to have a hard time explaining to Vickie and Hordak why the skiff now had scratches. Hearing Sasha laughing and having a good time, was enough for her to at least momentarily let it go. 

It wasn’t long before Sasha gunned the engine, causing them to speed up again this time more dangerously. 

“You need to slow down Sasha,” Charlotte warned, gritting her teeth. They were going to fast and the skiff was starting to veer dangerously.

Sasha ignored her, once again fighting to keep Charlotte from taking control. “Stop trying to grab the wheel, I got it.”

“No I got it,” Charlotte said, trying to hip check her friend out of the way. 

The two were so busy fighting that they hardly noticed the tree that suddenly looked in their way. It was a second too late, but Sasha managed to turn the wheel, causing the backside of the skiff to slam into it. The crash ejected Charlotte from the side of the airship, causing her to fall to the forest floor below. 

Sasha looked horror-struck as she watched her best friend fall. “Charlie!!” She called, trying to turn the skiff around, but it was too late as Charlotte disappeared into the thicker brush of the forest. 

\----

Charlotte hit the ground hard, driving the wind out of her chest. She had hit multiple branches on the way down and her ribs ached. If one of them wasn’t broken, then at the very least they were going to be bruised. It took a lot of work but she finally managed to sit up and look around. She hadn’t heard the skiff go down, nor could she see any smoke. 

“Sasha? Sasha!!” She called out, before whining as pain racked her ribs and chest. Leaning against the nearby tree she slowly worked her way up to a standing position. Nothing felt broken and so she staggered in the direction that the skiff had gone before something caught her eyes. 

A gleaming sword was tangled in a wad of swamp moss. Charlotte rubbed her eyes thinking that she must have been hallucinating but it was still there when she opened her eyes again. “What the heck?” 

The blonde slowly made her way towards it, trying to see if she could hear Sasha. She didn’t know where her friend had gone, but she hoped that she’d be back soon. As Charlotte neared the sword, she could see it sparkling. It had a beautiful golden hilt with a bright light blue gem in the middle. 

Charlotte licked her lips. “Whoa, that’s cool.” She mumbled, reaching out a hand to grab it from the moss. As soon as her fingers grazed the hilt, the gem in the middle began to glow so intensely that it blinded Charlotte for a moment. She could hear a voice speaking inside her head. 

_ “Balance must be restored, Eitheria seeks a hero.”  _

Charlotte could see a tall blonde figure, dressed in battle armor holding the sword. Flashes of light flew past her so fast that it made her feel dizzy. Distantly she could hear somebody calling her name and with that her eyes opened and the world came back into view. She hadn’t realized that she had been knocked out, but she could now see Sasha kneeling over her looking concerned. 

“Charlie can you hear me?” Sasha asked, prodding at her face. 

Placing a hand on her aching head, Charlotte tried to blink the stars out of her eyes. "Sasha, what the heck happened?" 

"You fell out of the skiff, are you okay?" Sasha was clearly worried but trying to downplay it. "Is anything broken, can you move?" 

"I don't think I broke anything," Charlotte mumbled, sitting up with Sasha's help. "I c-can move." She stammered, before looking around for the sword. 

"What are you looking for?" Sasha asked noticing the distracted look in Charlotte's eyes, the smaller woman was thinking that perhaps her friend was concussed. 

"The sword, there was a sword," Charlotte said as Sasha helped her to her feet.

Sasha looked around and then back to Charlotte. "Are you brain damaged, please don't be brain damaged. Vickie and Hordak are gonna kill me." She said grabbing at Charlotte's face to check her out. 

Charlotte huffed and shoved Sasha off of her. "I'm not brain-damaged Sasha. I saw a sword, I'm telling you the truth." 

Sasha gave a shrug of her shoulders. "I don't know what to tell you, but we need to get back. There isn't a sword Charlie, you must have just hit your head super hard. Let's get back to the Fright Zone before we get into more trouble." Sasha usually didn't care about the rules, but after almost getting her friend hurt, she was ready to just get back to what was familiar. She grabbed her friend by the ponytail and dragged her back to the smoking skiff. 

Charlotte scowled but didn't fight Sasha this time. She could have sworn she had seen a sword, but maybe she was wrong. She didn't know what to think now, but Sasha was probably right. It was time to get back to the Fright Zone before anybody noticed their absence. 

\----

\- Back in Brightmoon- 

Becky Lynch stared up at the tower where Princess Bayley's room was. Becky had been Bayley's friend for the longest time and had been appointed her sworn shield by Queen Stephanie when Bayley had come of age. Becky was a great archer, inventor and fighter, but she still had her immature days. Technically she was only a year or two older than Bayley, but they had grown up together. She had heard from the other guards about Bayley being grounded to her room and rebuked by her mother the Queen. 

Becky felt bad for her friend, she knew that Bayley struggled with how her mom perceived her. Scaling the ivy that covered the tower, Becky crept up into Bayley's window and knocked on it to get the Princess's attention. Becky could practically hear her friend stewing in anger through the window. Bayley had always been a bit of a loud thinker. 

"Hey Bayley!"

"Stoppit, you're going to get me in trouble." Bayley hissed, before taking Becky by the wrists and dragging her through the window. It was hard to stay mad at her friend when Becky was giving her that dopey expression. 

"I thought you could use a friend," Becky said shrugging as she flopped down at the foot of her best friend's bed. 

Bayley flopped down beside her and glanced up at the ceiling. "I appreciate you coming to see me, but I'm grounded. I'm not supposed to see any of my friends." Bayley was still furious, so much so that magic was sparking at her fingertips. She had inherited some of her parents' powers, her in particular usually allowed her to teleport in short bursts from place to place. She was still learning how to control it. 

Becky rolled onto her side and gave Bayley a sympathetic look. "Is this because of what happened at Elberon? You were just helping people, it was brave of you." 

"I know that and you know that, but my mom doesn't understand. She sees me as a child and not the commander I could be. I don't even understand why she gave me this position if she's not going to actually let me fight!" Bayley roared. She grabbed the pillow off her bed and screamed her frustration into it. 

  
  


Becky didn't particularly want to play devil's advocate because she wanted to support her friend, but the redheaded archer could see why Bayley's mom wanted to protect her. "You're the only family she has left." 

Bayley regarded her with an amused glance. "She put me at an outpost that's so remote it'd never get attacked, but when I finally get a chance to defend it and use my powers, she gets angry. I saved lives today, why can't she be happy!"

Becky placed a hand on Bayley's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Because she cares about you and as a parent probably just worries." 

"Whose side are you on Becks?" Bayley pouted. 

"You know I'm on your side Bayley, but she is the Queen. I'm kind of required to have some loyalty to her or I wouldn't be a good soldier." Becky said, trying to lighten the tension. "If you want to prove yourself, you can't run recklessly into battles Bay, you gotta prove to your mom that you can follow orders too." 

Just because Bayley knew that Becky had a point, didn't mean she wanted to acknowledge it. It was infuriating that her mother didn't take her seriously but ever since Bayley's dad had been killed, her mother had become a different person. Queen Stephanie was closed off and constantly babying her. 

Becky could tell that Bayley was still down in the dumps. "I actually came by because I wanted to show you something cool." Becky pulled a tablet out of her pack. "I detected a strange first-ones signal in the woods. I thought maybe we could go check it out together. If we find out what it is and bring it back to your mom, she'll have to let you off being grounded." She offered, trying to appeal to Bayley's adventurous side. 

Bayley pursed her lips. "I don't know, it could be dangerous." She paused for a second before a smile made it's way across her face. "You know what, let's do it! I'll show her I'm not a little kid anymore. I'm in!" 

Becky smiled as well. "Well then come on! Let's go find that signal and see what it is." She said holding her hand out to Bayley. 

"Let's just hope we get back before my mom notices. I'm still grounded." Bayley took Becky's hand and focused, teleporting them out of the castle and into the whispering woods outside of Brightmoon. 


	3. The Sword part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlotte goes back to find the sword but finds Princess Bayley and Becky as well. They find themselves getting into a lot of trouble over that sword, including getting attacked by a spider-creature and the first emergence of She-Ra.

-In the Fright Zone-

As soon as Charlotte and Sasha got back home, Charlotte went straight to the dormitories. The duo had barely managed to sneak their skiff back into its port, it was battered and dinged up but neither Charlotte or Sasha were going to take responsibility for that at the moment. Charlotte was beyond tired and her body was aching far too much for her to be her usual apologetic self. She pulled the blanket over her head, not even reacting when Sasha curled up at the foot of the bed. Charlotte found herself sleeping fitfully, flashes of white and gold colors darted in her mind. She could hear a voice calling her name.

_ Charlotte! Charlotte! Charlotte! _

Charlotte jolted awake, but then relaxed slightly when she realized Sasha was still sound asleep. An uneasy smile crossed Charlotte’s features as she reached out and slid a pillow under her best friend’s head so Sasha would be more comfortable. She ran her fingers through Sasha’s hair, watching as her friend unconsciously leaned into her touch, seeking it out. Despite Sasha’s rougher edges, when she was asleep she seemed almost peaceful.

Swinging her legs out of the bed, Charlotte slowly got to her feet. She made her way out of the dormitory failing to notice that one of Sasha’s eyes had cracked open to watch her. The blonde carefully crept back out, trying not to wake up Sasha or the other cadets. She was curious about the sword and she wanted to go back to the Whispering Woods to see if she could locate it. She made it halfway down the hall before she heard footsteps behind her. 

“Where are you going?” Sasha asked, her voice thick with sleep. “It’s not like you to break curfew.” 

“I need to find that sword, I know what I saw,” Charlotte replied, trying to keep her voice low. It was bad enough that Sasha was awake, she didn’t want to have to deal with anybody else. “It was glowing and I heard voices, I’m still hearing voices.”

Sasha scowled and gave Charlotte a weird look. “You hit your head pretty hard when you fell. I should have taken you to medical, I still think you could have brain damage.” 

Charlotte glanced at the floor and just frowned. “I am not brain-damage, Sasha. I saw something out there and I am going to go find it. It’s important, I just know it is.” Charlotte said, turning away from her. She could sense that Sasha wasn’t taking this as seriously as her, but it didn’t matter. She was going back to the woods with or without Sasha’s approval. 

“Okay, I’m going with you.” The shorter cadet said, falling in line with Charlotte. 

The blonde was stunned. “I don’t want to risk you getting in trouble. You’re already in hot water with Vickie and Hordak. If you go back to bed now, you can have plausible deniability.” 

Laughing quietly, Sasha shook her head. “I thought you would have learned by now that I don’t listen to authority very well. Vickie can screw herself.” 

Charlotte was touched by Sasha’s loyalty, it meant a lot to her. Still, if Sasha stayed behind, it was probably safer for both of them. “I need you to stay here, cover for me, I’ll try and be back before sunrise.” Charlotte placed her hand on Sasha’s shoulder giving it a gentle yet meaningful squeeze. 

  
  


Sasha opened her mouth to argue, but Charlotte was already running off down the hall before she could. Her eyes narrowed and she grumbled under her breath. While she admired Charlotte’s determination, it was sometimes annoying that Charlotte was always risking herself for the greater good of everybody else. 

\----

-Whispering Woods-

“Dang it!” Becky cried, groaning in frustration as her tablet’s screen went fuzzy and then blinked out again. It had kept short-circuiting every fifty feet or so since she and Bayley had set out to find the mysterious tech. Whatever the thing was, it kept interfering with her tablet’s signal. 

“Are you sure we’re not lost? I feel like we’ve passed that tree six times already.” Bayley’s feet were starting to hurt. They had been walking for closer to two hours and all she wanted to do was sit down and rest. 

Becky spared Bayley a glance before looking back to her tablet and rebooting it. “We’re not lost, my tablet just keeps malfunctioning. Just give it a minute.” Becky said. She was particularly touchy about her technology and didn’t like people to question her. Most of the time, the people she talked to couldn’t keep up.

Bayley could only take so much technological speak before she tuned out. The Princess of Brightmoon glanced around, trying to decide if they had in fact passed the same tree multiple times when a glowing light in the distance caught her attention. 

“Hey Bex, I think I might have found it,” Bayley said, her face lighting up as she started making her way towards the light. 

“Has anybody ever told you not to go towards a glowing light?” Becky questioned, but she followed after Bayley. She was curious about the light as well, but she also wanted to remain close since she was supposed to be protecting the princess. 

At the same time, Charlotte was approaching from the opposite direction, talking to herself. She had been searching for half an hour, trying to track where the skiff had crashed through the canopy of trees. She wanted to find the sword, but the longer that she looked, the more she worried that Sasha might have been right about a brain injury. She was just about to give up when she spotted the glowing light in the distance. 

“I knew it!” Charlotte began to jog towards it, ignoring the way her body seemed to protest in response. As she crashed through the undergrowth, the sword still tangled in moss came into view. Right as she reached out to grab it again, she heard voices. Making a quick decision, she tucked herself behind some bushes, watching with interest as a pair of women made their way into the clearing as well. 

There was a tall brunette, wearing the fanciest outfit Charlotte had ever seen. The tan-skinned girl was talking to a slightly shorter red-head who held a tablet. “I told you, Becky, I saw a light.” 

“Well your highness, the tracker when it was working said the tech was the opposite direction. I don’t think this is it.” Becky said, finally taking note of the sword. She put her tablet away, moving to inspect it. 

Charlotte’s eyes narrowed on the darker haired girl. The fancy clothes now made sense, she must have been a Princess and a member of the rebellion. The girl with the tablet would have had to be her guard. Charlotte was not about to let the enemy get their hands on the weapon. She charged out from her hiding spot, ready to confront them. 

“That sword is mine!” Charlotte said, staring them down. 

Bayley and Becky looked startled to suddenly find a blonde horde soldier in front of them. By the badge on her vest, she was clearly a Force Captain. Bayley focused and used her teleportation magic to teleport between Charlotte and the sword, grabbed it, and then teleported back. 

“We can’t let the horde scum get the sword.” Bayley cried. 

Becky was already notching an arrow. “I see her, give up! You can’t take us both.” Becky warned. 

Any confusion Charlotte had about whether or not the brunette was a princess was cleared up as she saw her teleport. She knew that the Princess Alliance had a lot of magic users, but she had never seen anybody outside of Vickie use magic this closely before.

“I don’t have to take you both,” Charlotte said lunging for Bayley. Charlotte grabbed her trying to grapple for the sword.

Becky couldn’t shoot with Bayley so close to the blonde, she stood a very strong chance of hitting the person that she was supposed to be protecting. Fortunately, she didn’t have to make a choice as Charlotte knocked the sword away from Bayley and sent it skittering to Becky’s feet. The archer picked it up and took off running. 

Charlotte kicked Bayley hard in the ribs and took off after the ginger girl. “Give me back my sword. I saw it first.” Charlotte growled, easily gaining on Becky. She shoe-lace tackled the archer, who hit the ground with a thud. “Just let me have the sword, I don’t want to hurt either of you.” 

Bayley teleported to Becky’s side, helping her friend up. “Since when do Horde soldiers care about who they hurt or not?” She could see Charlotte scrambling for the sword and lunged for it at the same time, but the soldier’s hand touched the blade first. 

All at once, there was a blinding light that knocked them all back. 

\----

_ Hello Charlotte _

Charlotte blinked the stars out of her eyes, a million different symbols seemed to be flashing through her vision until it finally cleared. Out of the haze seemed to emerge a cloaked figure, walking towards her. 

Sitting up, Charlotte blinked rapidly again, trying to clear her vision. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing, in front of her now was a figured dress in purple and decidedly female. Charlotte couldn’t figure out what to make of the person, but they were speaking to her again, calling her name.

“Who are you, how do you know my name?” Charlotte stammered, desperately looking around, trying to process and understand what was happening around her. 

_ “My name is Light Hope and I have been waiting for you for a very long time.” _ Light Hope said in a monotone.  _ “I couldn’t reach out until you made contact with the sword. I needed you to forge your own link to it, in your own time. I didn’t expect it to take this long, but it does not matter.”  _

Charlotte watched as the woman’s form flickered in and out. “I-I don’t understand, you sent me the sword? Why?” 

Light Hope gave the smallest of nods.  _ “The sword is meant for you, it is your destiny. Etheria needs you Charlotte, they need the person who you might become. Will you fight for Etheria and for the honor of Grayskull?”  _

“What are you even talking about? What is Grayskull?” Charlotte was more confused than ever. She didn’t know who Light Hope was, but the woman was giving off some seriously weird vibes if she even was a woman. “You aren’t making any sense lady. I don’t understand!”

_ “You will.” _ Light Hope replied ominously before the room began to brighten almost painfully. Charlotte cried out for her to hold on and to wait, but her words fell on deaf ears. The light became so painful that Charlotte felt like it was melting her brain. Eventually, the blonde passed out again. 

\---

“I think we killed her,” Becky whispered quietly to Bayley. 

“She’s breathing still.” Bayley pointed out and resumed binding the Horde soldier’s wrists. She didn’t know why the blonde had passed out, but she wasn’t going to take any chances. She could hear the captive starting to groan and come around. “See she’s not dead.” 

Charlotte slowly opened her eyes, taking in the sight of two very stern faces. The Princess was holding her sword and the archer was studying her warily. “What happened?” 

“Shut up! You don’t get to ask the questions.” Bayley said, puffing out her chest. Inside she felt like doing a victory dance. Not only had she managed to capture a wicked looking sword, but she had caught a horde spy. Her mother was going to have to forgive her now. Logically she knew the next step was to take the horde spy to her mom, but the blonde was already looking pretty shifty.

“Yeah, we get to ask the questions,” Becky added, nodding in agreement with Bayley. “How did you get into the woods?” 

Charlotte arched a brow, wondering if the two were incompetent. “I just walked in.” 

“Likely story.” Bayley chided, pointing a finger in Charlotte’s face. “You were sent here by the Horde to spy on us weren’t you?” 

Charlotte had to take a deep breath to calm herself, she was starting to get annoyed. “I am not a Horde spy. Now let me go.” 

Bayley laughed at the notion. “Heck no, we caught you fair and square. The Whispering Woods belong to Bright Moon. You are wearing a Horde Uniform so, therefore, we are taking you to the Queen.” Bayley grabbed Becky by the arm and dragged her a few feet away so they could talk in peace. 

“Do you really think she’s with the Horde?” Becky asked curiously. She would follow Bayley to the ends of the Earth, but she wanted to make sure the Princess knew what she was doing. 

Looking around apprehensively, Bayley shrugged. “I mean it only makes sense. She’s in our woods, wearing their uniform and trying to steal our sword.” 

Charlotte gave an indignant scoff. “I can hear you, and that Sword is mine. I found it first.” 

Stamping her foot on the ground, Bayley’s eyes narrowed. “Shut up!” She growled, before lowering her voice as she looked to Becky. “Dude when my mom sees her, she’s going to promote us both.” 

The princess hauled Charlotte to her feet and shoved her forward, directing her towards the Bright Moon castle. The small group began making their way through the woods, having to cut a path through the thick trees and bushes. Bayley was trying to navigate them back to the castle, but just like before it felt like they kept going in circles. 

“Perhaps you should let me lead the way, I think you’re getting us lost,” Becky said reaching for her tablet to take the lead. 

“No, I got it. I know what I’m doing.” Bayley snapped, glaring at Becky. “Just trust me and watch the prisoner.” She then walked ahead, leaving Charlotte alone with Becky. 

Becky and Charlotte walked along in silence for a few minutes. Charlotte was looking for a way to escape and get her sword back, while Becky just kept studying her out of the corner of her eye. Becky had never actually met a Horde soldier and was actually pretty curious about Charlotte. 

“What’s a Horde soldier doing in our neck of the woods?” Becky asked, but when Charlotte refused to talk to her, the archer changed her tactics. “Have you been a member of the Horde for a long time?” 

Charlotte rolled her eyes skyward. “I don’t generally engage in small talk with people who have captured me.” Charlotte groused. She was really interested in talking to Becky or the Princess, she just wanted to escape now. But something was really bothering her, she couldn’t understand how anybody would be so willing to follow a Princess or a member of the rebellion. “You do know what she is right, who she is? People like her are a threat to all of Etheria.” 

Becky blinked in surprise. “People like her?” She glanced ahead to Bayley, watching her friend struggle to get the tablet working, as she staggered through the bushes. She could see Bayley being short-tempered and sometimes impulsive, but she had never seen her hurt anybody.

“Yes! She’s a princess, they’re all bad.” Charlotte said, her eyes widening. She hadn’t realized just how deeply the people were being brainwashed. 

“Is that what they tell you in the Horde?” Becky snorted softly and shook her head. “You’ve got it all wrong, the Horde soldiers are the bad guys. The Princess Alliance and the rebellion are the good guys. They protect the people of Etheria, the Horde just enslaves them.” 

A weird feeling tugged at Charlotte’s chest, she didn’t want to believe what Becky was saying. “That’s not true.” She protested, but the words sounded weak even to her. “The Princesses are warmongers.” 

Becky folded her arms across her chest, wondering just how the blonde could be so fooled. “You’ve obviously never met somebody outside the Horde have you?” 

“Well, no just you two. But you stole the sword from me so not a great first impression.” Charlotte pointed out, glaring down at the ropes that bound her hands. She glanced up sharply when she heard Bayley whimper and yelped as Becky shoved her forward, dragging her to the sound of the distraught princess. 

The sight that greeted them was one of pure carnage. What used to be a village and trading outpost was completely destroyed, tents were still smoldering and carts had been smashed to pieces. There were no people around, but some of their beast of burden animals had been slaughtered. The smell was enough to make Charlotte want to vomit. 

“What happened in this place?” Charlotte questioned. 

Bayley turned to glare at her, unadulterated rage now burning in her eyes. “Don’t play dumb with me blondie, your people did this. This right here, attacking innocent people and slaughtering villages is what the Horde does.” Bayley snapped, shoving Charlotte hard enough to knock the girl flat on her backside. 

“The horde would never do this, Hordak wouldn’t allow it.” Charlotte protested. She glared up at Bayley, but then she noticed one of the training bots just over the girl’s shoulder. It was just like the ones they used in their simulations except this one was bigger and had larger weapons attached. 

It was Becky who followed her line of sight and just shook her head. “The Horde has done this to countless villages. Ever since Hordak brought his army here, Etheria has been dying. You have to see that now.” 

Charlotte didn’t want to believe it but the proof in front of her eyes was hard to dispute. “This doesn’t make any sense, Hordak said we were doing what’s best for the people. We were creating a better life for them, a better future.” 

“This isn’t better.” Bayley gestured to the wreckage. She turned away from Charlotte in disgust. She couldn’t even stand to be near her, so she motioned for Becky to watch her and then walked off with the sword, trying to see if she could find any survivors. 

Becky waited until Bayley was far enough away, before slowly hauling Charlotte to her feet. “You honestly didn’t know?” She asked, trying to get a read on Charlotte. 

Charlotte shook her head. “I was always taught that the Princesses were the bad guys. That they ruled over Etheria with their powers and tortured people.” 

“Trust me when I tell you that Bayley would never torture anybody. Sure she’s still learning her powers, but I’ve never actually seen her hurt anybody.” Becky explained. She allowed Charlotte a moment to digest everything, it was a lot to take in. “Do you have a name, my name is Becky.” 

Charlotte hesitated but decided it was probably best to cooperate. “Charlotte, Force Captain Charlotte.” She mused, finally locking eyes with Becky. 

“Well I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but I think that’d be a lie right now.” Becky managed with a small smirk. She nodded in Bayley’s direction. “Bayley’s the Princess of Brightmoon.” 

“I can’t believe that the Horde is responsible for this. I was abandoned as a baby, and the Horde gave me a home, a place where I belong. This doesn’t fit with everything I know about them.” Charlotte was starting to get a headache and she didn’t think it had anything to do with the fact that she had fallen out of an aircraft not even twelve hours prior. 

“Perhaps you just don’t know them as well as you think you do.” Becky’s words struck Charlotte hard, but they weren’t said unkindly. Becky was clearly trying to let Charlotte have the space to work through all the information she was learning. 

The moment of reflection was ruined as Bayley came running back into the clearing. “We gotta go, we gotta go! Something is coming.” She shouted. 

Just behind Bayley a massive glowing spider-creature burst into the clearing and let out a terrifying noise that sent chills up the trio’s backs. With every step it took, it cracked the surrounding pieces of Earth. It went straight for Charlotte, but Becky dove in between the prisoner and the beast, firing an arrow to try and push it back. 

The spider-monster switched targets and went for Becky. It hit her with a massive leg and sent her colliding into Bayley, knocking them both down. For a moment Charlotte was tempted to just grab the sword that Bayley had dropped and run. She didn’t owe them anything, they were her friends and technically they were on the opposite side of the war. 

But even as the thought crossed her mind, Charlotte grabbed the sword and ran towards the monster. Becky had saved her by distracting the monster first and she figured that she would return the favor just this once. Her hands were still bound so wielding the sword was awkward, but that didn’t stop Charlotte from trying. 

“Come and get me, you ugly beast!” Charlotte called, drawing the spider’s attention. The creature spun and lurched towards her. Charlotte managed to get her weapon up, trying to use the giant blade almost like a shield as the Spider lashed out at her. When the Spider’s leg made contact with the blade, a blinding light once again filled the area. 

Charlotte could hear Light Hope calling her name again. She wasn’t sure if she was dead, but she certainly hoped not. Fighting a spider was not exactly the most glorious of ways to die. 

_ Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte? Will you fight for the honor of Grayskull? _

“For the honor of Grayskull!” Charlotte shouted, the words echoing and bouncing around in her mind. The light grew so bright, she felt like her skin was being seared off, but she somehow held her footing. 

As the light faded from Charlotte, she was now closer to eight feet tall, her blonde hair was long now and flowing freely. She sported a weird tiara and had a faint glow about her and the sword. Gone was the red outfit of the horde, now replaced with white and gold armor, and a lengthy red cloak. 

  
\-----   
  
“You’re seeing this right?” Becky asked out of the side of her mouth as she tried to push Bayley behind her so she could protect the Princess of Brightmoon. “Charlotte just turned into a giant princess-warrior thing, like that actually happened?”

“I am definitely seeing it, but I’m not sure I am believing it,” Bayley said, stunned by the transformation the blonde had gone through. Charlotte looked radically different and yet somehow still the same person. The large sword that the Horde Force Captain had been wielding now looked like it was meant for her. 

Charlotte was staring at the spider-creature still with her sword raised. The creature seemed to recognize her now or at least the sword in her hand and backed off. Charlotte blinked in confusion until she realized that she had in fact transformed. 

“Oh my god!” Charlotte squealed in a very unladylike manner. She stumbled backward from the creature, tripping over a rock and landing flat on her back. The break in her concentration, caused her to drop the sword. The weapon glowed and just as quickly as she had transformed into the larger version of herself, she shrunk back. 

Bayley wasn’t about to risk this opportunity and quickly teleported to the dropped sword. She glared at Charlotte and tried to snatch the weapon away from her. “Give me the sword Charlotte!”

“No, it’s mine! I don’t know what you did to me, to make that happen but stop casting your magic spells on me!” Charlotte grumbled, trying to pick Bayley away from her, as once more they grappled over the sword.

“I didn’t do that to you! I was busy almost getting eaten by that creature.” Bayley scoffed at the notion. She wouldn’t have used her magic on the Horde soldier anyways.

Becky walked over and yanked the sword away from both of them scowling. She definitely didn’t want them picking a fight and angering the spider-monster who was still watching them. She looked to Charlotte, her gaze searching. “Bayley didn’t use any magic on you, but you somehow transformed. How did you do that?” 

Charlotte’s eyes were wide and she felt as though she was on the verge of a panic attack. “I don’t know, I don’t have any idea. The sword was just glowing and it was weird.” Her words came out in a rush, she sounded almost hysterical. 

“It doesn’t matter, she’s still our prisoner. Give me the sword Becky and let’s rope her back up. We need to get her to the palace. She’s still a threat, we can’t let her turn back into that thing,” Bayley snapped, yanking the sword away from Becky. 

Apparently, the Spider-creature did not like that at all, because it suddenly let out an ear-piercing shriek and started heading right for Bayley and the others. They all had to dive out of the way, as the creature began lashing out with its many legs. 

“Give her the sword Bayley,” Becky growled. 

Bayley shook her head. “No, she’s the bad guy!”

“We’re going to die, give her the fricken sword!!’ Becky snapped, leveling Bayley with a glare. 

“Ugh fine, but I am not happy about this.” Bayley protested. She did throw Charlotte the sword, even if it was somewhat reluctantly. “Well don’t just stand there blondie, turn back into that tall princess warrior and save us.” 

  
  


Charlotte wielded the sword. “I don’t know how I am not even sure how I did that the first time.” She screamed back. She tried to hoist the weapon high, hoping it would trigger the transformation but it didn’t. Instead, it seemed to only make the creature angrier. “Better idea, run away!” 

Becky, Charlotte, and Bayley all made a run for it, turning tail and dashing back through the woods. The spider-creature was huge, but having to cut through all the thick bushes and undergrowth slowed it down enough to keep the trio of girls ahead. 

“Wait there’s a drop-off,” Bayley said as she skidded to a stop right on the edge of a steep embankment. 

“No time to overthink.” Charlotte roughly shoved Bayley and Becky over the edge and then jumped off with them. She landed right on top of Becky with a painful grunt. 

The spider creature roared again and started trying to descend the embankment. The Horde soldier grabbed Becky by the wrist and helped her up, before helping up Bayley. “Come on, we gotta go. We can’t stay here.” 

Becky glanced ahead and noticed an odd-looking decrepit building. “There, we can hide in there from the spider monster.” She ran ahead of them, trying to open the doors. It wasn’t budging and she cursed under her breath. 

“I can use my magic to get us inside.” Bayley offered, ignoring the worried look that Becky was shooting her. “I know I’ve never teleported three people at the same time, but what choice do we have Becky? We’re running out of time.”

Charlotte studied the door, trying to read the weird symbol-writing on the wall. “Maybe we just have to say the password. Eternia.” Charlotte said. At the word the symbol on the doors lit up and opened for the trio. “Easy enough, let’s go.” 

“How did you know that would work?” Bayley inquired looking stunned.

“I didn’t know, lucky guess,” Charlotte replied, shoving Becky and Bayley into the building before the door slid shut after them and the spider-monster collided into it with a large bang. 

There was a brief moment of pitch-black darkness before Bayley lit up a small glowing orb to use as a light source. “What is this place?” 

Charlotte shrugged and looked around. “I’m not sure, but at least we’re away from that monster.” 

“Have you always been able to read First One's writing? That's what those symbols were back there.” Becky was staring at her curiously like Charlotte had grown a second head or something. “That language has been dead for a long time, like over a thousand years.” 

“Stop asking questions, I don’t know, okay?” Truly Charlotte didn’t understand what was going on. She wasn’t sure how she was able to read the weird symbols or why she could grow to eight feet tall and look like a warrior princess. She was scared and starting to grow frustrated. They kept accusing her of being the bad guy, but so far she had saved their necks multiple times. 

“Becky and I are just supposed to believe you? You somehow knew the magic word to save us from a monster and get us locked in a secret ancient ruin? Please, I know you’re up to something, I might not know exactly what it is, but it’s something.” Bayley said jabbing a finger into Charlotte’s chest.

The blonde got right in her face and snarled. “Why would I want to get myself locked in here with a Princess of all people. You guys are monsters.” Charlotte spat, poking Bayley right back and just as hard.

“Okay, okay. This is a lot of big feelings, why don’t we just calm down okay?” Becky said, trying to get in the middle and keep them from fighting. “Charlotte saved us from the monster, maybe we can trust her.”

“Stay out of this Becky,” Bayley said, locking eyes with Charlotte. “We can’t trust somebody like her. She’s indoctrinated Horde scum.” The Princess of Brightmoon then turned, storming ahead taking her magic orb so she could see. 

Becky groaned loudly and shook her head. “Look, you have to forgive her. She’s under a lot of pressure right now. Thank you for saving us from the spider-creature.” 

“Yeah, whatever. I wasn’t saving you or whatever, so don’t get it twisted. I just want the sword okay?” Charlotte muttered, setting off after Bayley. The faster they got out of there, the better. 

\----

Bayley was stewing as she led the way through the ruins. It was larger than she had originally thought and she was starting to get a little concerned that they might be stuck. She glanced down at the sword she had taken from Charlotte and frowned. 

“For the honor of Grayskull.” The Princess whispered though nothing happened. She couldn’t understand why somebody like Charlotte who was a proud member of the Horde would get to access the power of a First One's weapon like this. 

“Are you okay up there?” Becky asked, from her position next to Charlotte. She had been trying unsuccessfully to get Charlotte to talk to her, but the blonde was proficient at just ignoring her.

“I’m fine Bex.” Bayley cast a bitter glance at the sword and then looked up ahead. “It looks like more First One's writing.” 

This did catch Charlotte’s attention and drew a reaction out of her. “What exactly are the First Ones?” 

Scoffing, Bayley turned to look at her. “Seriously, you’ve never heard of the First Ones? Do they not educate you in the Horde?” 

  
  


Charlotte frowned at the Princess, wanting nothing more than to smack the smug look off of her face. She was thinking about lunging for the Brunette and punching her right in the kisser when Becky placed a hand around her shoulder. 

“The First Ones settled Etheria. They were super advanced and had all of this amazing technology. They were magical and amazing, but then a thousand years ago they disappeared. All that remains are ruins and tech that they left behind” Becky explained, trying not to be disappointed when Charlotte shrugged off her touch.

“Hmm, it seems weird that they’d just disappear.” Charlotte wasn’t sure what to think. Her brain was pounding uncomfortably from all the new information. “The Horde never mentioned them, it seems like it failed to tell me a lot of things.”

“Can you two stop gossiping and help me find the way out of here?” Bayley asked, glaring over her shoulder at them. She really didn’t feel comfortable with how close Charlotte and Becky were getting, it was starting to make her uncomfortable. 

Becky stuck out her tongue at Bayley, before smiling warmly at Charlotte. “Maybe you could use some of your magic. Do you know how to find the light switch in this place?” 

“I am not magical.” Charlotte protested, earning a snort from Bayley. “If you don’t stop it, I am going to punch you.” The blonde warned, getting fed up. 

Bayley arched a brow in challenge. “Bring it on then, cupcake.” 

“Please knock it off. You two are not helping the situation by fighting. If we want to get out of here, we’re going to have to work together and we can’t do that if you’re at each other’s throats. Call a truce.” Becky demanded, looking between them. 

“But-” Bayley started to protest. 

Becky shook her head. “I said, call a truce!”

  
  


The Horde Soldier and the Princess exchanged a long angry glance before they both finally nodded and said ‘Truce’ at the same time. Becky seemed to be content enough with that and resumed trying to find an exit route for them to take. 

“This is taking too long.” Bayley was growing tired of being patient. She focused on her magic orb, trying to use her powers to make it grow and expand it. She had used a lot of her magic powers already that day and it was starting to wear on her. Normally she wasn’t that far from Brightmoon so when she overexerted herself, she always had the chance to recharge, but she wasn’t even sure when she’d get back home now. 

With a grunt of effort, Bayley managed to toss the larger orb towards the ceiling, greatly illuminating the surrounding area. The action caused her to sway dangerously and she would have fallen if Becky hadn’t caught her. 

“Are you alright?” Becky asked, cradling her best friend’s cheek. “You need to stop using your powers so recklessly.” 

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Don’t worry so much.” Bayley muttered weakly, extracting herself from Becky’s arms. 

Charlotte for her part wasn’t even paying any attention to them now. Instead, her whole focus was on the giant stained-glass figure of the giant she had turned into earlier. “Whoa…”

Becky followed Charlotte’s line of sight and let out a low whistle. “Whoa is right. That’s you!” She said pointing at it. She noted the inscription at the bottom of the stained glass. “What does it say?” Becky asked. 

Charlotte swallowed hard, studying the words. She had a weird feeling in her gut about reading the inscription, like it might change everything. She could feel Becky and Bayley both staring at her, waiting for her to explain. Despite her fears, Charlotte pushed through and began to translate for them. “It says, She-Ra.” 


	4. Switching sides

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlotte learns about Thaymor and about the rebellion. She also witnesses the Horde violence first-hand and has to make a decision when she comes face to face with Sasha.

“It says, She-Ra.” 

At once light blossomed through the cavernous ruins, the inscription glowed with white light. The light ran along the stained glass pains illuminating them and making them stand out in stunning colors. As the light dissipated and the trio could finally see, a glittering hologram of Light Hope stood in front of Charlotte. 

_ “Hello administrator, what is your query?”  _

Bayley and Becky exchanged looks with each other, both of them clearly a little freaked out by the talking hologram. 

“You can hear it too?” Bayley asked in a low hiss to Becky, the redhead quickly nodding. She looked equally as uncomfortable by what was happening. 

_ “What is your query?”  _ Light Hope repeated in the same monotone voice She was flickering in and out of the space right in front of them. 

Becky swallowed hard, reaching out a hand to prod at the hologram. “Where are we?” When Light Hope didn’t respond, Becky continued and tried again. “We want to leave now, can you please tell us how to get out of here?” 

There was a long few seconds of silence before Light Hope spoke. _ “What is your query?”  _

Charlotte let out an annoyed grunt. “She’s broken, let’s just keep looking around. This is pointless.” She muttered in frustration.

Bayley moved forward trying to get a better look at Light Hope, wanting to understand the technology. “We’re lucky she turned on at all. The First Ones have been gone for over a thousand years now. It’s a wonder she even worked in the first place.” Bayley waved her hand through the hologram and then frowned when it switched from a clear color to a dark red. 

_ “Admin not detected. Lockdown protocol now initiated.”  _

Charlotte frowned. “That can’t be good.” 

All around them the room began to rumble as doors attempted to slide shut, only to crack and fall from old age and disrepair. Even pieces of the ceiling were now starting to fall, crashing mere feet away from them. 

“We need to move, we can’t stay here.” Becky grabbed a hold of Bayley’s wrist, trying to pull her close. It was her duty as Bayley’s sworn shield to protect her and keep her safe. “Charlotte do something! Say the password from before, maybe it’ll work.” 

Charlotte wasn’t sure that was going to work, but it was better than dying in a cave-in. She stared Light Hope down. “Eternia! Eternia!” She called, but Light Hope just continued to flicker in a blood-red color. Charlotte wanted to rip her hair out in frustration, she didn’t want to die like this. She glanced up at the stained-glass picture of She-Ra as an idea hit her. Maybe the giant lady was the key to all of it. “Give me the sword Bayley.”

“No way!” Bayley said, clutching the sword to her chest. “Why would I do that?” 

“Just give me the sword. I think it might be our way out of here.” Charlotte said, holding out her hand. 

Bayley clearly wanted to protest that, but as another piece of ceiling fell perilously closer, she decided to go a different route. She grabbed onto Charlotte and Becky and then using the last bit of her strength teleported them out of the cave. 

For a moment they were all free-falling, they were out of the ruins, but that didn’t matter as the ground rushed up to meet them. Becky used her bow and arrow to shoot a net out to catch them. They all managed to snag on the rope and Becky was just thankful that Bayley was still breathing after using up all her magic like that. 

Charlotte slowly slid off the net, trying to take a moment to collect herself as Becky dealt with Bayley. The soldier had seen a lot of things in training with the Horde, but so far the last twelve hours of her day had been the craziest. She had been captured by the Princess Alliance, chased by a spider-creature, lost in the ruins of an ancient First One's fortress and almost squashed by falling debris. All she wanted to do was just go back to the fright zone where she felt comfortable and safe, where she knew what the routine was. 

“I need you to wake up Bay,” Becky said lightly poking at her cheek, when that didn’t work she slapped Bayley’s face.

Bayley grunted in pain. “Did it work, are we free?” 

“Yeah, we’re out of there. Don’t ever do that again, I hate when you scare me like that.” Becky reprimanded, before hugging Bayley tightly. She had been terrified that her friend had almost killed herself. “Are you alright?”

Bayley struggled to sit up and shrugged her shoulders. “Define alright. I used the last out of my powers to get us out of there. I don’t think I’ll be much use until I get a chance to recharge in Brightmoon.” She felt for the sword, not wanting to let it out of her sight. She seemed to realize that Charlotte was still there. “Why are you still here? I am surprised you didn’t run off.” 

Charlotte pursed her lips and shrugged. She wasn’t sure she had a good answer for that, wasn’t sure she even wanted to think about it. “A lot of weird stuff has happened today. I want to know why I was able to turn into that giant woman. I have questions…” She trailed off and looked away, unable to meet their gaze. “If I go back to the Fright Zone right now, I’ll never understand why this is happening to me.”

“Queen Stephanie knows a lot about First One's technology. If anybody will be able to figure out your connection with that sword, it’ll be here.” Becky offered, trying to be helpful, despite the dirty look that Bayley was not shooting her way.

“Ugh, fine. She can still come with us, but if she tries anything…” Bayley held out and pushed a finger into Charlotte’s chest. The Princess of Brightmoon still didn’t trust her, she wasn’t able to let that bias go quite yet, not until Charlotte proved herself. “I think there is a village up ahead, come on.” 

\-----------------

_\- In the Fright Zone -_

“Tell me where Charlotte is right now!”

Sasha did her best not to flinch as Vickie screeched loudly just a few inches away from her face. She was used to being yelled at and singled out by Vickie, but normally she had Charlotte around to soften the woman’s temper. Instead, Charlotte had been gone for far longer than she had promised, leaving Sasha to face the full force of Vickie’s temper by herself. She could see the dark magic crackling at the woman’s fingertips. Sasha had been getting yelled at for close to an hour and she was only making Vickie angrier by refusing to answer her questions directly. It was worth it though to see Hordak’s second-in-command so flustered and furious. 

“I told you, I don’t know where she is. I am not her keeper, I don’t get paid enough for that.” Sasha couldn’t help but mouth off. She really did get a kick out of back talking and sassing authority. Charlotte would have chided her, but Sasha didn’t have the blonde’s influence to rely on at the moment. 

Vickie’s eyes narrowed and she stepped forward punching the wall right next to Sasha’s face, cracking the plaster. “I know you’re lying to me Sasha, and I would advise you to rethink your answer. For some unknown reason she thinks she can trust you, she wouldn’t leave the Fright Zone without telling you.”

Sasha rolled her eyes and let out a bitter laugh. “Charlotte does a lot of things without telling me. Doesn’t feel good to be let down by her does it?”    
  
For a moment Vickie’s fingers flexed like she wanted to strike the cadet for her insolence but she didn’t, barely managing to rein in her temper. “Fine, don’t tell me. I have my own way of tracking her, much like Charlotte, I don’t need you.”    
  
That did draw a reaction out of Sasha, an annoyed grimace crossed her features. “If you could find her, then why ask me?” Of course, Vickie would be getting a sick joy out of torturing her. Sasha was under no illusion, she was aware of just how much Vickie hated her in comparison to Charlotte. 

“Because I am giving you the task of bringing her back to the Fright Zone. Try not to mess this mission up, I doubt your ability already.” Vickie said icily.    
  
“Oh whatever Vickie, go do it yourself.” Sasha scoffed and turned to leave. She only got halfway towards the door, before her body was racked with dark magic and she began to convulse. She let out a cry of pain, trying to bite down on her bottom lip and stifle the agony. She dropped to her knees, her nails digging into her palms. She didn’t want to show Vickie how much pain she was in.    
  
“Poor Sasha, still as foolish as ever. Find Charlotte and bring her back to me or else.” Vickie taunted, cruelly stroking Sasha’s cheek, before moving past her. “Should you return empty-handed, you’ll be punished in your friend’s place.” She patted the top of her head condescendingly, before leaving Sasha alone and shaken to collect herself up off the floor.    
  
\----   
  
-In a random village in the Whisper Woods-   
As Charlotte, Becky and Bayley made their way into the closest village, Charlotte was struck by the sound of music playing. She peeked around the corner of the building and was surprised to see children running about and playing. The blonde scrunched her brow together and pursed her lips, she had never seen anything like that in the Horde. 

Bayley grabbed at Charlotte's elbow and pulled her away before she could be spotted. "You're going to need to change." 

Charlotte frowned. "Why?" 

"Because you're wearing a Horde uniform. The people of this village aren't going to trust you." Becky explained, trying to be kinder than Bayley would have been. 

"Are you sure about this?" Charlotte asked, glancing down at her uniform. She had been learning that there was more to the Horde and what they had been doing, but taking off her uniform felt like the ultimate betrayal. The two other girls nodded at her, sow ith a scowl Charlotte shed her Horde inform, leaving her in just a light grey undershirt and her cargo pants. 

"Hmm, it needs something else. You're not going to fit in." Bayley frowned and unhooked her cape, wrapping it around Charlotte's shoulders. She wasn't sure that Charlotte looked 'normal', but at the very least it would stop the villagers from thinking she was a soldier.

A protest was clearly on Charlotte's lips, but she forced herself to remain quiet. She instead focused on how happy the people of the village sounded, it seemed like there was a party or a festival of some kind going on. Various banners and displays lined the people's tents, all of the decorations were colorful and bright. 

Muttering under her breath, Bayley pushed past Charlotte, to lead them into the village. "Do us all a favor and keep your head down. We don't want to attract any unnecessary attention." She warned pointedly. Bayley began to weave her way through the crowd, taking great care not to bump any of the villagers. 

Becky fell in step with Charlotte and offered her a friendly smile. "Have you ever seen a festival like this before? Surely, you have to have parties and stuff in the Fright Zone." 

Charlotte awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck and shook her head. "Not really, there was never much to celebrate." Now that she was saying all of this out loud, it sounded horrible to her. Charlotte had never really questioned it before since it was just part of the normal routine in the Fright Zone. "What are they celebrating here." 

"Well, most villages celebrate different things, the changing of the seasons, special holidays, birthdays, weddings, all sorts of things really," Becky explained, keeping her voice low. She didn't want to attract any attention to them. 

Charlotte felt dumb, which was an unusual feeling for the girl who usually excelled at whatever task was put in front of her. "Oh, I see." She lied, attempting to act like she understood, what all of the things that Becky had listed were. Charlotte wasn't sure she had ever seen a season change, it was usually always the same weather in the fright zone. Hot and very humid. Occasionally it would rain, but it was a sticky and heated rain, that seemed to burn. 

Bayley glanced over her shoulder and rolled her eyes skyward, it was starting to bother her that Becky seemed intent on bonding with Charlotte. She didn't know where this blonde, Horde-loving, perfect, tall, idiot got the idea that she could take Bayley's place as Becky's best friend. Bayley wheeled around and jabbed her finger into Charlotte's chest. "Stop wasting time, we need to get out of here." 

Becky pushed Bayley's hand away, trying to prevent yet another fight. "Charlotte was just telling me she's never been to a festival. Don't rush her, let her take it all in. She's never had a birthday, do you know how pathetic that is? You gotta give her a couple of minutes at least, please?" Becky pleaded. She didn't understand why her best friend was acting so uptight all of a sudden. 

"I really don't think this is a good idea-" Bayley didn't even get to finish her sentence before Becky was all but dragging Charlotte to try some of the different food from the stalls. "Seriously?" Bayley stomped her foot on the ground and crossed her arms. Maybe she was acting like a petulant child, but she was getting frustrated. 

Charlotte wasn't sure what to think when Becky shoved a sort of fruit into her hands. She watched how Becky sampled the food, before trying it herself. "Oh my god, what is it?" She had expected Becky to maybe be trying to poison her, but the food was actually delicious. In the Fright Zone, normally all they were served were dehydrated bricks of slop. 

"It's fruit!" Becky explained, detailing the different items that the food stall was selling. Charlotte only understood about half of the words, but it didn't matter, because she was just happy eating her piece of juicy fruit. 

For the next few hours, Becky showed Charlotte around, helping her experience some of the festival and party stuff she had missed out on. She introduced her to different foods, showed her the different trinkets in the stalls, and even got her to play a fairly competitive game of tag with some of the village children. Becky considered it decent progress since she only had to remind Charlotte to play gently twice, and nobody actually got hurt.

"Hey, what's that thing?" Charlotte asked as the party was winding down. Becky, Bayley and her had been resting in one of the clearings outside of the village, trying to relax after the excitement. She was pointing towards a small horse, that was grazing by one of the tents. She had never actually seen a real-life horse before and it looked beautiful and yet odd somehow. Charlotte definitely wanted to go over and pet it. 

Bayley raised a brow. "It's just a horse." 

"It's so beautiful," Charlotte commented, clearly awestruck. "Can I pet it?" 

"Probably not the best idea, we should get moving. We have wasted enough time here." Bayley said. She was desperate to get them back on track. "Let's go guys." 

Becky frowned at Bayley. "Don't be a buzzkill." She took Charlotte by the hand and led her over to the horse. "Just stick out your hand and let it get used to you. Don't go behind it, or else he might get scared and kick you." 

Charlotte hesitantly held out her hand, brushing her fingers along its head and patting its grey mane. "He's so handsome and regal looking." 

"Come on Becky, you know we have to keep moving." Bayley hissed impatiently. 

"She isn't all that bad Bayley. You win more people to our side with kindness than with frustration and anger. You saved Charlotte earlier, you know you like her." Becky pointed out, flashing a smug smile. She could tell that Bayley was trying to hold on to her initial judgment of Charlotte, but they could both tell there was something good about the blonde. 

A loud crashing noise interrupted their conversation. In the distance, smoke began to rise above the trees as the sound of machinery got closer. The trio ran back from the clearing towards the village, only to find some of the tents being destroyed by Horde bots and soldiers. 

"It's the Horde, they're here!" Becky cried, wincing as another tent got hit by a bot's laser. 

"Why are they attacking Thaymor, this place isn't a threat to anybody." Bayley frowned, ducking back as some Horde soldiers ran past. She glanced at Charlotte, who looked stunned by the destruction that was happening to the village. 

"Wait, wait for just a second. This is Thaymor? This can't be." Charlotte felt like her head was starting to pound. She remembered her talk with Vickie, and the woman explaining how Thaymor was a heavily fortified rebel stronghold. 

"You knew about this?" Bayley asked, her voice cracking. 

"Yes, I m-mean..." Charlotte felt like she was going to be sick to her stomach. "We were told that Thaymor was a military installation. I didn't know it was a civilian town." 

Bayley grabbed her by the arm and dragged her away as more the village was starting to get destroyed. "You think the Horde cares about civilians versus soldiers, newsflash, they don't!"

Fires were beginning to spread, smoke spilling up to the sky making it darker. Charlotte's fist clenched at her side, there had to be some sort of mistake, the Horde that she knew wasn't supposed to hurt innocent people. "I'll get them to stop, you and Becky get the people out of here. Maybe if they see me, they'll stop attacking. I am a Force Captain." Charlotte reasoned though she wasn't sure if she was trying to convince herself or the other two. 

"Just be safe," Becky said, squeezing Charlotte's arm, before setting off with Bayley to try and save the innocent people of Thaymor.

\-----

"Stop!" Charlotte yelled as she fought her way through the crowd of screaming and terrified civilians. There was a large tank rolling right towards Charlotte but she held her ground, facing it down. "I said, stop!"

The tank stopped mere inches away from Charlotte, but slowly the hatch popped open revealing a beaming Sasha. Sasha slowly climbed half-way out of the tank, her face lighting up even more. "Oh my gosh, Adora you're okay! I've been looking everywhere for you. They let me drive a tank, can you believe it?" Sasha purred, climbing the rest of the way out of the tank and hugging Charlotte close. 

Charlotte frowned and lightly shoved Sasha off of her. "Sasha, what are you doing here?" She asked, stunned to see her best friend. 

"We've been looking for you Dummy. You said you'd be back and then you never showed. Vickie was worried you got captured, so she sent a whole battalion out to find you." Sasha explained, grunting as she dusted herself off. A deep frowned worked its way across Sasha's face. She promptly punched Charlotte in the arm as hard as she could. "You told me you'd be back, that I just needed to cover for you for a couple of hours. You've been gone for the better part of a day Charlotte!"

"I know, something came up," Charlotte said, glancing down. 

Sasha's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What happened exactly, how did you end up in Thaymor?" She seemed to notice the cloak that Charlotte was wearing for the first time. "What the heck is that thing?" 

Charlotte groaned and shook her head. "It's a long story, I don't have time to explain it all right now. You need to call off the attack." 

"Why would I do that?" Sasha was confused, not understanding why Charlotte was acting so weird. "Did you hit your head again? This is a city loyal to the Princess Alliance and the Rebellion, why do you care what happens to them?" 

"Please Sasha, they are innocent civilians." Charlotte pleaded, trying to get her friend to see reason. 

Sasha scoffed and shook her head. "They're not innocent, they kidnapped a Horde officer. They have to pay Charlotte, you of all people should know that. We have to send a message, and you need to get back to the Fright Zone. I don't think I could deal with any more of Vickie's screeching today." 

Charlotte took a step back, putting some space between her and Sasha. "I am not going back to the Fright Zone, not until the Horde agrees to leave this town. These people didn't do anything to me, they were kind." Charlotte protested, desperate to save the villagers who had been so welcoming to her. 

"Did you forget whose side your own? These people are the enemy Charlotte." Sasha said gesturing around them. She let out a bitter laugh. "You must have hit your head pretty hard, we need to get you checked out when we get back." 

"I said I'm not going!" Charlotte shouted, drawing her line in the sand. "The Horde has been lying to us, manipulating the story, tricking us. They are not the good guys, we are not the good guys Sasha. You need to see that." Charlotte cried, her voice thick with emotion.

Sasha stared at her blankly and then rolled her eyes. "Of course they've been lying to us, it's what Vickie and Hordak do. They lie to us, to get us to do what they want." She said pointedly. "Have you been so dumb you haven't realized that?"

"How can you be okay with that, with hurting other people?" Charlotte asked, feeling her heart squeezing painfully the more she and Sasha talked. She couldn't process the fact that her best friend seemed to know about the Horde's corruption and didn't care.

"Because it's not about them. It's about you and me, we look out for each other. You're the reason I've stuck around the Fright Zone, you think I want to be stuck obeying their orders. I've stayed because of you." Sasha explained. She couldn't have cared less about everybody else in the Horde. Sure their battalion meant something to her, but it was only Charlotte that she cared about. "Let's go home Charlotte." 

Slowly Charlotte shook her head, she couldn't go back not after what she had learned about the Horde. She didn't want to be on the wrong side anymore, she didn't want to someday have to face down Bayley or Becky. "I am not going back there Sash, but you can stay with me. You can come with me and we can right the wrongs that the Horde have committed." Charlotte said, holding out her hand to Sasha. 

Sasha stared at the offered hand like it was the most disgusting thing she had ever seen. "Seriously Charlie? You don't know these people and yet you're suddenly willing to turn your back on everything you've ever known? Willing to just throw it all away, even me?" 

Charlotte felt tears start to sting her eyes. "I just can't go back, I don't belong there anymore. I am sorry Sasha." She mumbled quietly. She turned to leave and only got about four steps before she was hit with a taser gun.

Sasha slowly sheathed her taser pistol and frowned. "I'm sorry too, Charlotte." She said regretfully as she made her way over to her friend's twitching body. She knelt down and threw Charlotte over her shoulder, carrying her towards the tank.

\----

"Watch out!" Becky barely managed to tackle Bayley out of the way as a Horde bot shot a laser beam right at her. She shoved the Princess behind a tree, before drawing another arrow and firing it into the Bot's eye. 

They had spent the last twenty minutes trying to take out the Horde bots, while also rescuing civilians. They had managed to evacuate most, but it seemed like the Horde had limitless amounts of ammunition and soldiers. For every one that they took down, there were two more popping up to shoot at them. 

"We can't keep fighting like this. There are too many of them, my mom was right. I am not ready to be a commander." Bayley felt like crying as she glanced at her hands. She was worn out and she didn't have much magic left, what little she did have was crackling between her fingers.

"Hey now, you're Princess Bayley of Brightmoon, you can't give up," Becky said, glancing at her friend. "I'll protect you until my dying breath, but I need you to keep holding on to hope." 

"It's hard to hold onto hope when we're about to be overrun." Bayley pointed out, ducking as another blast hit close to their hiding position. It felt hopeless to keep trying to fight against the Horde, she wasn't sure where Charlotte was, or even if the blonde was on their side. 

Becky let out a low growl, she grabbed a hold of Bayley's shoulders and shook her roughly. "Enough with the pity party! You are one of the strongest people that I know, buck up buttercup. We have a village to save, Commander Glimmer." Becky said, trying to will her to keep fighting.

Bayley straightened up to her full height and took a deep breath. "You're right. We have to save these people, we need to find Charlotte. If we get her the sword, she can become She-Ra and help change the tide of the battle."

"Really?" Becky was surprised that Bayley wanted to trust Charlotte when they weren't certain of her loyalties. 

"Giving her the sword might be our only shot. We have to find her." Bayley replied, trying to scan the battlefield for the blonde. She didn't see Charlotte, but she did see the horse from earlier. "Come on, trust me." She said, running towards it. She flung herself upon its back and then tugged Becky up onto the horse's back behind her. 

The duo managed to find Charlotte, being carried towards the tank by Sasha. Becky fired one of her arrows from horseback narrowingly missing Sasha's face, causing her to drop Charlotte roughly to the ground.

Sasha snarled as she turned to face Bayley and Becky. "You are seriously about to regret that." She warned, charging at them to attack with her taser pistol. 

Charlotte tried to sit up, groaning in pain. "Sasha please don't hurt them." She pleased, not wanting to see them fight. 

"Don't hurt them? They just fired an arrow at me." Sasha yelled. She was trying to hit them with the stun gun. 

"Just stop fighting them please Sash, you don't have to do that." 

Sasha stopped pursuing Bayley and Becky for a moment. "You left me alone in the Fright Zone, and now you're telling me not to attack them? They attacked me first." Sasha pointed out, shifting her attention to her best friend. She was furious with the blonde for taking the side of complete strangers. "We're supposed to be best friends Charlie, why are you helping them? If I don't get you back safely to the Fright Zone, Vickie is going to kill me,"

Bayley took the opportunity to attack while Sasha was distracted. She threw a sphere of magical energy at Sasha's face, momentarily blinding her. "Come on Charlotte, we have to go." She said, offering the soldier her hand. 

"That's enough!" Sasha yelled, now shooting the gun blindly at the group. "I've tried to play nice, but you're starting to piss me off. You're coming home whether you want to or not Charlotte. You don't belong with them." 

Bayley hesitated and then dismounted from the horse, handing over the sword to Charlotte. "We need She-Ra, she's the only way we can stop this attack." 

Charlotte took the sword warily, she wasn't sure why Bayley was handing her the sword. The princess had made it clear earlier that she didn't trust her. She had so many questions she wanted to ask, but instead, she turned to face down Sasha and the Horde tanks that were destroying Thaymor. 

"For the honor of Greyskull!"

\---

Sasha sat stunned as she watched Charlotte's body begin to glow and transform. Horror crossed her features as the light dimmed and the new and improved Charlotte stepped forward. Except that it wasn't her Charlotte, this amazon woman was taller, with long hair and full armor on. Where her friend had been lean, this stranger had muscles that rippled and bulged. 

Scrambling back, Sasha could only watch as this strange Princess-version of Charlotte, cut through the tanks and bots with her sword as if they were nothing but mere inconveniences. If Sasha had a real heart, she was sure that it would have shattered at the sight of Charlotte turning her back on everything that they had worked for, everything that their friendship stood for. 

It was horrifying to see this stronger-version of Charlotte throwing the other soldiers around like they weighed nothing. Sasha gritted her teeth and looked away willing herself not to cry or show any more emotion. If her friend was going to betray her like this, then so be it. 

"Fall back!" Sasha called, taking control of the situation. She was well aware of the fact that going back to the Fright Zone empty-handed would mean her head, but that seemed like a vacation compared to the emotional pain she was now feeling. She locked eyes with Charlotte, not looking away until the smoke from the fires obscured her from view. 

"What do we do now Sasha?" One of her soldiers asked. 

Sasha gritted her teeth. "We go home and we tell Vickie and Hordak that Charlotte has joined the Princess Alliance." She spat bitterly. "And then we ask what our next move is." 

\---

Charlotte dropped to her knees as she slowly shifted back from her She-Ra form. Her body was aching from the extortion of cutting through all the tanks and bots. She wasn't sure if that hurt as much as the look of betrayal that Sasha had given her before she left. 

Becky was at her side in an instant, helping her up. "You saved us." 

Charlotte frowned, looking around the destroyed ruins of Thaymor and the Horde weapons. "It doesn't feel much like a victory." She mumbled weakly. She had hoped that Sasha would join them, but she realized now that it wasn't likely to happen, the thought made her want to throw up. "I turned against the Horde...against Sasha."

"It's going to be okay," Bayley said, as she gave the blonde a hug. "You're going to be okay. You're with us now, Charlotte."

"Yeah we can go back to Brightmoon, Bay's mom is going to want to meet you," Becky added. She seemed almost excited to take Charlotte to Brightmoon, the blonde had earned her trust.

Charlotte cast a wary glance over her shoulder in the direction the Horde soldiers and Sasha had fled too. "Yeah, okay. Let's go." She said, trying not to sound regretful. 


	5. A not so warm welcome

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlotte learns that a horde soldier isn't really welcome in Brightmoon.

-Outskirts of Brightmoon-

Charlotte was tired of walking, the conversation had long died off, which left her with only her racing thoughts. She still couldn’t get over how betrayed Sasha had looked or how she had turned into She-Ra and almost single-handedly stopped a Horde battalion. It was all too much to take in and she was struggling to process it. 

Bayley had about fallen asleep on the horse and Becky was busy guiding them all towards Brightmoon, so neither of them was much help. All Charlotte could do was follow and try not to dwell on the fact that she had thrown away everything she had ever known. 

“Hey look, we’re here.” Becky piped up suddenly, shocking Charlotte out of her pity party. 

In front of them looked a massive set of gates that protected a large Castle and courtyard. Even from a distance, it was magnificent, the surrounding mountains giving it an airy and open beauty that would have been out of place in the Fright Zone. Charlotte felt her jaw drop, she had never seen a waterfall before, the closest thing was the disgusting sewer water that drained from the Fright Zone.

“Welcome to Brightmoon.” Bayley murmured, her voice thick with sleep. How she had fallen asleep sitting up and riding a horse, Charlotte wasn’t sure but she didn’t question her. Bayley slowly dismounted from the horse, almost stumbling but Becky caught her before she fell to the ground.

“You should probably recharge your powers before you see your mom,” Becky suggested, righting her friend and dusting off Bayley’s shoulders. 

Bayley grimaced a little bit, she had forgotten about the fact that her mother had grounded her before she left. It didn’t exactly thrill her to know that she’d be in hot water, especially when her mom found out that she had left Bright Moon in the first place. “That’s not a bad idea. She’s going to have my head for leaving.” 

“I should probably bring you through the back, Charlotte. Bayley is going to need a minute with her mom before she tells her she brought a Horde soldier to Brightmoon.” Becky could already hear the epic fight that was probably going to go down.

Charlotte shifted uncomfortably but shrugged, she was willing to do whatever it took to make things easier for her new friends. “Sure that’s fine.” She said, following after the archer. 

“When we get to Bayley’s room, we can get you a change of clothes,” Becky added as she escorted the blonde through a remote entrance along the wall. There were a decent amount of soldiers and people from Bright Moon around, but they seemed to not even notice Becky or Charlotte. 

“What’s wrong with my clothes?” Charlotte asked, looking down at her uniform. Okay, so maybe it was a little dirty from the adventures of the day, but she didn’t think it looked all that bad. 

Becky glanced at her and frowned. “Well it is clearly a Horde uniform and it’s likely to draw the wrong kind of attention,” Becky replied. She wasn’t sure the rest of Brightmoon would be as open-minded or forgiving as she had been.

“So you want to hide me, won’t that make the people mad when they find out?” Charlotte wasn’t sure how all of this princess stuff worked, but she didn’t think lying was part of it. 

“You’ll just have to trust me.” Becky shrugged and then carefully guided Charlotte up to where Bayley’s room was. “This is Bay’s room, it’s pretty cool huh.” 

Charlotte felt her jaw drop as she looked around. Bayley’s room had to be bigger than the dorms in the Fright Zone, the Princess’ bed even looked soft and inviting. Shades of white and gold trimming filled the room and coated the decorations. “Okay, I admit it, this is pretty dope.” She admitted, a tone of awe creeping into her voice.

\----

“Bayley, where were you?” 

Flinching at the sound of her mother’s panicked voice, Bayley slowly swung herself down from the horse and handed the reins over one of the palace guards. She was trying to think of what she wanted to say to Queen Stephanie, but she already had a nagging suspicion that her mom wasn’t going to be interested in her excuses. 

“Hey, mom,” Bayley said, her voice still weak. She was overly exhausted from having to use so much magic and all she wanted to do was sleep for a whole year. She had never had to use that much magic before and it had drained her. She tried to keep herself steady, but the world was starting to tinge white on the borders of her vision.   
Queen Stephanie was starting to rant about how it was rude for Bayley to leave like she had and that the whole kingdom had been looking for her. Bayley did her best to focus, but her body gave out and started to sway. The Queen had to surge forward to catch Bayley before she hit the ground. 

Stephanie carefully scooped Bayley up into her arms, cradling her daughter before using her own magic to fly up to the Brightmoon power gem. Bayley could see her mother’s concerned features, but it was the last thing she saw before her vision went completely dark and she passed out. 

It took some time, but when Bayley was finally able to open her eyes, she found herself laying next to the stone. Her mother was kneeling beside her, looking more stressed and distraught then Bayley had ever seen. Normally her mother was so composed and regal looking, but Queen Stephanie looked as though she had aged a decade from fear. 

“Mom?” Bayley asked, her voice trembling. It took some time, but she was finally able to focus. 

Stephanie seemed to sag in relief and gently stroked her forehead. “You scared me, Bayley. Are you alright?”

Bayley flinched at the touch, remembering how angry she had been with her mother earlier. A lot had transpired since then, but she hadn’t forgotten. “I’m fine.” 

Stephanie’s eyes darkened a little bit and she swallowed hard, trying to quell her own temper. “You’re still in trouble for leaving, I grounded you for a reason. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“I am sorry for leaving, I didn’t know I’d be away from Brightmoon that long. Becky said she found some First One’s tech, and I thought if I found it for the Rebellion, you’d be proud of me.” Bayley explained, her magic sparking between her fingers. She felt better now that she had been recharged. 

“Where did you go?” The queen was now curious, wondering what had taken her daughter so long. Sure, Bayley could be a bit reckless but she had never stayed gone that long before without being in contact. 

“Well we found the First One’s tech in the woods, but then we found something even better,” Bayley said, a bright smile crossing her features. She couldn’t wait to introduce her mom to Charlotte and to show her mom what the blonde could do with the sword. 

A look of apprehension flickered through Stephanie’s eyes. “What did you find exactly?” 

“Just wait here, I’ll show you.” Bayley squeezed her mom tightly before teleporting away. She knew it’d only be a matter of time before her mom started trying to lecture her for sneaking out again. The faster she got around to showing her mom, the more likely her mom would forget about whatever punishment she was cooking up.

Bayley made it to her room to room to hear both Charlotte and Becky talking. There was a lot of apprehension in Charlotte's voice as she questioned why she was being hidden away in Bayley's bedroom. The crowned princess of Brightmoon felt for her, but at the same time, she knew it was best to keep Charlotte away from the people. Just like Bayley, they were likely going to jump to conclusions about why a Horde soldier was in the palace. 

"You have to understand Charlotte, the people of Brightmoon aren't going to be willing to trust a Horde soldier right away. This war has been going on for a long time and there are a lot of emotional wounds." Becky explained, looking toward the door briefly as Bayley entered the room. 

"I never knew the Horde was so bad or that it hurt so many people. I thought we were liberating the people of Etheria, but now I realize that we were the ones causing all the damage in the first place." Charlotte sighed and buried her face in her hands. She didn't know how she was going to do it, but she wanted to make up for all the pain and damage that had been caused. 

Bayley cleared her throat a little bit. "Alright you two, my mom is on her way. I need you both to remain calm, we don't freak out or panic." She nodded to the sword at Charlotte's side. "I'm going to need you to transform into She-Ra, she'll trust you more if you don't look..." Bayley gestured vaguely towards the Horde uniform that Charlotte still had on. 

A deep frown etched its way across Charlotte's features. "I am not sure I can transform. I barely knew how to do it out in the woods." She warned, not wanting Bayley or Becky to get their hopes up. She wanted to make a good impression on Bayley's mom, meeting the Queen was important.

Charlotte didn't want to admit it, but being She-Ra came with a lot of power, a power that she wasn't sure how to control yet. It scared her to see how easily she had sliced through the Horde tanks and bots. She didn't want to actually hurt anybody with her new powers. 

"Just try, Becky and I will stall for you," Bayley said with a reassuring smile. "You can do this, just be She-Ra!" She called before grabbing Becky by the wrist and teleporting back out of the room to stall Queen Stephanie. 

Charlotte stared forlornly at the sword and frowned. “Just be She-Ra, that sounds easy.” She muttered sarcastically. She didn’t want to let her new friends down, but she was definitely not feeling very confident. 

Charlotte lifted the sword, ready to try and transform, but something caught her attention outside. She could see the horse that they rescued for Thaymor outside. A small smile tugged at her lips as she slowly climbed out of Bayley’s bedroom window and made her way towards the horse. 

“Hey, buddy.” Charlotte greeted, petting its head. She glanced at the sword and sighed. “Do you have any tips on how to transform into a hardcore warrior, because I honestly don’t know.” She muttered, trying to focus.

The horse just neighed at her and looked bored, much to Charlotte’s chagrin. She rolled her eyes skyward, wanting to flop in the grass and just forget everything that was happening. Charlotte knew that Bayley and Becky would be disappointed and she didn’t want to let them down. 

“For the honor of Grayskull.” She cried, hefting the sword. It glowed for a moment and then dimmed, but she didn’t transform as she had hoped. A deep frown worked its way across the blonde’s lip. She knew if Sasha could see her now, the girl would be laughing at her. “For the honor of Grayskull.” Charlotte tried again, but nothing happened. 

It didn’t matter what the blonde soldier tried, or how she said the words, Charlotte couldn’t transform back into She-Ra. “You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Charlotte muttered, wiping the sweat from her eyes. She wished that she could figure out the magic. “Okay one last try, For the Honor of Grayskull!!” 

This time the sword did light up, but instead of enveloping her, it enveloped the horse. Charlotte watched in horror as the horse’s form changed. No longer was it the normal color, but instead it now was pure white except for its mane, and the brightly colored wings that sprouted from its side. A large horn now sat proudly from the horse’s forehead. 

“Oh god, oh god,” Charlotte cried, trying to run after the spooked horse. She wasn’t sure if it could be considered a horse anymore, not that she’d know, because she had only met a horse for the first time in Thaymor. “Come back horse!!” 

The creature ignored her and took off running towards the middle of the Brightmoon village center. Charlotte ran after it trying to catch up, she hadn’t been aware that her sword could transform other people or creatures. It was clear now that Charlotte had underestimated the magic. She was also starting to regret not giving it a name. 

Charlotte watched in horror as the now winged-horse crashed into the various tents and tables of Brightmoon's market. The horse's wings flapped, causing it to awkwardly take to the air, while simultaneously knocking down even more tents. Charlotte was cringing internally, knowing this was probably the opposite of keeping a low profile. 

All around the now destroyed market, citizens of Brightmoon were coming to inspect the damage. However, they seemed to notice Charlotte's Horde soldier uniform as well. She could hear them starting to murmur about her, but Charlotte's attention was still on the horse, watching as it awkwardly flew further into the sky and away from Brightmoon. 

"Horde soldier! We're under attack!" 

Charlotte barely managed to get out of the way as one of Brightmoon's guards charged at her. "Wait, please stop. This is all just a misunderstanding, I am here to help." Charlotte said, ducking a swing from the guard's sword. She barely managed to parry the second swing, which forced her to retreat a couple of paces. Charlotte wasn't all that confident fighting with swords, and she didn't want to use She-Ra's sword to hurt any of the people in Brightmoon. 

"Please listen! I am not with the Horde." Charlotte yelled, desperately pleading with them, but the citizens didn't seem to care nor were they listening. More of them were starting to throw things at her, firing arrows and taking swings at her with their swords. Charlotte hesitated but only for a moment, she needed to get out of there. So despite what her Horde training had taught her, she turned tail and ran. 

She could still hear their angry shouting, but she had to get out of there. She knew that Bayley and Becky would find her, perhaps they'd be able to explain the situation, but right now the people of Brightmoon weren't interested in listening to her. As she reached the outskirts of the city, a large drop-off loomed in front of her. At the bottom of the drop-off was a body of water, but it looked cold and uninviting.

Apprehension coiled in her stomach, but with a deep breath, she forced herself to take the leap. It was better than being mobbed and killed by the angry villagers. She plunged all the way down and the impact of hitting the water was enough to drive the air from her lungs. Thankfully she had managed to keep a hold of her sword, Charlotte's plan was just to swim to the other side and put some distance between her and Brightmoon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really appreciate all of you who are reading this story, it means a lot to me.


	6. A cat lady in the woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlotte runs into a strange lady in the woods. Sasha has to confront her feelings on Charlotte's betrayal.

Bayley could sense her mother’s irritation as she and Becky led her towards the area they had left Charlotte. It was subtle in the way that Stephanie kept picking at the lint at her robe. As Queen, Stephanie was usually pretty busy and as her daughter, Bayley knew that. She managed a weak smile at her mom and cleared her throat. 

“Are you sure about this, Bayley?” Her mom asked, looking uneasily at her. Normally her mom 

“You’re going to love our surprise.” Bayley insisted, trying to keep a positive look on her face. She was hoping that Charlotte had managed to shift into She-Ra, otherwise there was no telling how her mom would react. 

Becky flashed her most charming smile. “I’ll go ahead and make sure that the surprise is ready.” She said giving a nod to Bayley and a salute to the queen. 

Stephanie watched her daughter’s sworn shield leave and then smirked. “You have a very loyal friend.” 

Bayley rolled her eyes skyward, ignoring her mom’s implication. “Yes, Becky is amazing, but I think you’ll love this surprise even more. It’s going to knock your socks off.” 

Stephanie glanced down at her feet and arched a brow. “I’m not wearing any socks.” 

Bayley was about to respond when Becky came jogging back, a look of horror and uncertainty etched across the redhead’s features. Bayley arched a brow, shooting her friend a questioning look. 

“We have a problem!” Becky hissed quietly, tugging at Bayley’s wrist. “A very big problem.” 

All at once, two Brightmoon guards came rushing into the hall. “Your majesty, a Horde Soldier was just spotted in the market. The soldier attacked us with a sword and seemed to be chasing after a winged beast.” 

Slowly the Queen turned to look at Becky and Bayley, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. “Please tell me you had nothing to do with this!” Though her words were sharp, her tone was unusually quiet which was more unnerving. 

Bayley gulped hard. “I can explain mom…”

\-----

-Back in the Fright Zone-

Sasha wanted to claw her eyeballs out, having to watch Naomi recount the details of the attack on Thaymor to Dana, Finn, and AJ. Every single word felt like a knife to the gut, since it only served to remind her that Charlotte had abandoned her. Her supposed best friend had betrayed her for the stupid Princess Alliance, and Sasha wasn’t sure how to deal with that feeling. It made her want to throw up, while also thrashing around and destroying everything in sight. 

“I’m telling you all this new Princess is no joke. I don’t know where the rebellion has been hiding her, but she’s a real game-changer.” Naomi mused, gesturing about wildly. “She was huge, taller than anybody else I’ve ever seen and she used that sword to take out our tanks single-handedly.” 

Sasha rolled her eyes skyward, her nails digging into the palms of her hands. She had never been particularly close with the other cadets, not like she was with Charlotte. Usually, the blonde was there to buffer for her and curb her more wild impulses. 

“Get over your little Princess crush. That princess was just like rest and she’ll fall just like the rest.” Sasha spat, getting to her feet. She was growing irritated with the hero worship when all she wanted to do was get retribution. 

“You were right in her face, Sasha. You can’t deny how good she is, you didn’t manage to hit her once.” Naomi pointed out with a smug smile. “Did the mighty Sasha freeze up? I guess you’re not so strong without Charlotte to cover for you.” 

Sasha’s eyes blazed with anger and she surged forward shoving the other cadet against the locker. “If you think I am scared of some princess, then you’re delusional.” Sasha hissed, punching the locker right above Naomi’s head, causing her to flinch. 

AJ, Finn, and Dana moved to separate the two, trying to keep things from escalating into a brawl. Naomi was fired up now though and looked Sasha dead in the eyes, a clear disdain there. 

“I’d watch it, Sasha. We’re loyal to Charlotte, not you. It would be wise of you not to get things twisted,” Naomi said in warning. 

Sasha scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I can handle myself.” She replied though she did take a moment to note that fighting by herself against the other members of her battalion wasn’t likely to end well. “I’ll see you later,” She taunted, before slinking off. 

She wanted to kick herself though, Charlotte’s words were still fresh in her mind. She couldn’t believe that the blonde had abandoned the Horde and everything they stood for. Sure things weren’t great in the Fright Zone but at the very least, they had had each other. A small piece of Sasha was wondering why she hadn’t been enough to make Charlotte stay, what was fundamentally wrong with her that her best friend would abandon her at the first opportunity. 

Tears seemed to prick at the corner of Sasha’s eyes but she quickly wiped them away. She wasn’t going to show weakness, and she wasn’t going to allow somebody to cause her to feel this way ever again. Sasha was going to make Charlotte rue the day she had turned her back on the Horde, no matter what.

\----

-In the Whispering Woods-

Charlotte was out of breath as she slogged her way through the Whispering Woods. The various tree roots and unfamiliar terrain was making it difficult to find her way around without stumbling. She wasn’t sure how far she had gotten away from Brightmoon, but she had been jogging and power walking for at least two hours, just trying to get as far as she could.

The whole situation with the protectors of Brightmoon had not gone as she hoped. It irritated her that she hadn’t been able to explain herself, but if what Becky and Bayley had mentioned was correct, then she could understand the citizens' reactions. To the people of Brightmoon and to the Rebellion she was the enemy. The Horde had caused a lot of pain, and she could see that through the angry expressions the people attacking her had worn. 

She glanced around, trying to listen for the sound of an angry crowd of people following her, but when she heard nothing behind her, she sighed in relief. Slowly Charlotte sank down to the ground, hiding behind a fallen tree stump as she tried to make sense of everything that had happened to her. 

She had found a sword, she had learned she could shift into a tall warrior named She-ra, she had left the Horde to join the Rebellion, and she had essentially lost her childhood friend Sasha. Charlotte glanced at the sword and frowned, trying to rationalize if everything was worth it. Sasha was never going to forgive her and the very people she was trying to help had just run her out of Brightmoon. 

"Stupid sword, I think you're more trouble than you're worth," Charlotte grumbled out loud, though the sword gave no reply. She lifted the sword and rolled her eyes, almost mockingly. "For the honor of Greyskull." 

Once more, nothing happened, which only further stoked Charlotte's frustrations. She didn't understand how this magic worked, why it would allow her to shift into She-Ra sometimes and other times it wouldn't. It was infuriating for the former soldier and it made her want to rip her hair out. 

In the distance, Charlotte heard what sounded like metal clanging. She slid down lower, trying to hide behind the fallen stump as she looked for what made the noise. She wondered if perhaps the horse that she had accidentally transformed was around. "Hey, who is there?" She called out into the forest.

The sudden sound of humming filled the air and Charlotte crinkled her nose in surprise. Stil maintaining a tight grip on her sword, she crept towards the noise, only to find a small woman hunched over. The elderly-looking woman was sweeping the forest floor with a makeshift broom and directly behind her was a sort of shelter made out of roots and vines. There were little forest cats rubbing up against the woman, purring and scratching at the broom's bristles. 

Abruptly the woman stopped sweeping, unfocused eyes glanced in the direction of Charlotte who was still hiding. The elderly woman looked at her cats. "Did you hear something children, I did too." The crone clutched her broom to her chest. "Who is there, come out!"

Charlotte hesitated but slowly crawled over the tree trunk to reveal herself to the woman. She didn't want to scare her, but she was curious about the lady. Now that she was a little closer, Charlotte could see the woman's outfit was more just patches of mix-matched clothing in various shades of pink and black. 

"I am sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, ma'am," Charlotte said quietly, before continuing on awkwardly. "By chance have you seen a flying horse around here?" 

The old woman removed her glasses and squinted at Charlotte, before visibly brightening. "Beth dear, is that you? It's been such a long time." The woman cried, rushing as fast her feet would carry her toward Charlotte. 

"Wait, I think you've mistaken me-" Charlotte's words were cut off as bony fingers wrapped around her wrist and began tugging her towards the woman's hut. 

"I've been waiting so long for you to get back. I can't believe you're finally here, it's felt like forever." The little woman cried, deceptively strong despite her age. 

Charlotte blinked in surprise but allowed herself to be pulled forward. "You were waiting for me, are you sure?"

"Yes, yes, we had plans. We were going to pick some berries, you know I don't see as well as I used too." The woman grabbed a small woven basket and flashed Charlotte a bright smile. 

Awkwardly Charlotte tried to free herself from the woman's grip. "Ma'am, I am sorry but I really think you're confused. I've never met you before in my life." She was starting to think that perhaps this woman was a little crazy or had a screw loose.

The old woman gave a huff and stared at Charlotte for a moment, squinting and studying her intently. "No, I suppose you don't know me, do you? I'm Natalya, but my friends call me Nattie." She explained before a smile spread across her worn features. “You are different, not my Beth are you?”

Charlotte was definitely confused now, uncertain of what the lady was saying. She had never heard of this Beth person, and she didn't know what Nattie meant by saying she was different. "Have we met before? I am sorry, but I don't remember you." 

"This is the wrong time for my Beth, isn't it. Oh well, I'll have to make due." Nattie continued on, leaning down to pet one of the cats at her feet. She had kept talking like Charlotte's words hadn't even registered to her, which only furthered Charlotte's theory that perhaps this lady actually was crazy. 

"Oh well, you have the sword now instead," Nattie added, grabbing a basket and shoving it into Charlotte's hands.

Glancing down at the basket and then back at Nattie, Charlotte raised a brow. "What are you talking about, you know about the sword? You know what it can do?" Charlotte questioned, unable to hide the hope from her voice. 

"It doesn't matter! We have berries to pick, come on not-Beth." Nattie said, once more ignoring her questions. She pushed past Charlotte and exited the tiny root hut, leaving Charlotte to hurry up after her.

"You mentioned the sword, you've seen it before?" Charlotte tried again, desperate for answers. She found herself having to stumble back through the forest, trying to keep up with Nattie who seemed to know the terrain better. 

Nattie glanced over her shoulder a mischievous look in her wild eyes. "You're so silly Beth dear, please keep up. You keep asking silly questions. You know you bring that sword around here all the time," 

Charlotte scowled, narrowly avoiding stumbling over a large root. "I'm not Beth." She reminded. She took a deep breath reminding herself to calm down and chill out a little bit. Getting frustrated with an old lady who was clearly senile wasn't going to help her any. She decided to go with a different approach. "How long have you been alone in the woods?"

"Me, alone? Ha, I am not alone." Nattie said gesturing all around her. "I have the plants, the animals, even my cats to keep me company." Nattie giggled and resumed her walking. 

Charlotte let out a nervous giggle and glanced skyward. "Oh great, she's a crazy cat lady." She mumbled under her breath. 

It took another ten minutes of walking, but as Charlotte followed Nattie through the forest canopy, they came to an open area. In the middle of the open area was a large pyramid-like ship, it was covered with vines, clearly abandoned, and left to ruins. Charlotte's eyes widened as she watched Nattie walk right towards it like it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. 

"Ah, here we are Beth darling." Nattie gave her a toothy smile and gestured to it. 

The way that the ruin was designed was giving Charlotte some serious deja-vu. "I was at a place like this yesterday. It's a First Ones' ruin." She said, recalling the place that Bayley had to teleport her and Becky out of. 

Nattie was already crawling up some of the vines, trying to ascend to the top of the ruin. "Yes, and it's one of the best places to pick berries in all of the Whispering Woods." 

Charlotte was horrified as she watched the elderly woman crawling her way up the side of a ship. It was like the woman was half-spider or something, which considering all that Charlotte had witnessed the past few days wouldn't have been surprising at all. "Please be careful, I don't want you to fall." 

"Always such a worrywart dearie, come on Beth," Nattie called over her shoulder, ignoring Charlotte as she made it to the top of the ship. The path that the crazy cat lady had taken was now beginning to glow. The ruin underneath her shook and then promptly zapped it, causing Nattie to lose her grip and fall. 

"Crap!" Charlotte cursed, the soldier surging forward to try and catch Nattie as she fell from the top of the ship-ruin. She managed to catch her, grunting as they both hit the ground. The ruin began to glow even brighter as if it was slowly repairing itself. Some of the vines snapped, the light seemingly cutting through them.

Nattie blinked a couple of times and then sat up. "Wow what a tumble, thank you for catching me. Always such a hero Beth my dear." Nattie said pinching Charlotte's cheeks much to the younger woman's chagrin. 

Charlotte shot her a questioning side glance, but then looked up toward the sky. No longer could she see the forest canopy around them, but instead what she saw was a blueish-purple sky filled with thousands of stars. "What is this place Nattie?" 

A warm smile crossed Nattie's face as if she was remembering a million lifetimes. "We used to love to come here and look out at the stars. Do you remember Beth, do you remember how beautiful they all were?" The smile dimmed just slightly and Nattie glanced to the ground. "What happened to our stars dearie?" 

There was a sort of pounding sensation now growing more intensely in the back of Charlotte's skull. "I know this place, it feels familiar somehow. Why is this happening to me Nattie, I want to know! You must have brought me here for a reason." 

Nattie just shrugged her shoulders, popping a berry from her basket into her mouth. "I brought you here to pick some berries. Your basket is still empty, you should fix that." Nattie said as cryptically as ever. 

Charlotte wanted to throttle the small woman, shake her until the screw that was loose fell back into place. She didn't understand all the weird things that Nattie was trying to tell her, but she wished that she did. 

Bony fingers curled around Charlotte's wrist and dragged her forward again. "Come on, we have berries to pick." 

\----

-In the Fright Zone-

Sasha had shredded Charlotte's bedding, cut up her pillows, her blankets, everything that reminded her of the blonde. It felt cathartic in a way, but it also made a cold and empty feeling settle in the soldier's gut. How could Charlotte leave her like that? Why was the blonde able to throw away their friendship like it hadn't meant anything. Tears started to fall, leaving tracks down her cheeks, but she hurriedly wiped them away. Charlotte didn't deserve her tears, not anymore. 

"Sasha!"

Immediately the soldier got to her feet, wincing as she hit her head on the bunk bed above her. "What do you want Vickie?" 

Vickie slithered further into the room, the shadows seemingly attaching themselves to her, making it look bigger. "Excuse me, I should think you'd put some more respect on my name, considering you failed your mission." 

Sasha scowled, clenching her fist at her side. She knew that she was likely to get punished for what Charlotte had done to the tank and that she'd be reprimanded for coming back to the Fright Zone empty-handed. "I did exactly what you told me to do! You are the one that didn't tell us, there'd be a freaking Princess there!" Sasha retorted angrily, letting her bitterness coat her voice. 

Vickie's eyes darkened and the room seemed to get noticeably colder. "I told you to find Charlotte and bring her back. You failed me! Was that one mission so hard for you?" The shadows danced around her, slowly enveloping Sasha, making her feel like she would never be warm again. "Where is Charlotte?"

Sasha shivered despite herself but made sure to keep defiant eye contact. "I don't know where she is! If she wanted to come back then she would have, but clearly she doesn't want to be around you." Sasha spat, trying to goad Vickie into doing something. It wasn't in her nature to be compliant with authority figures. 

"I'd watch your tone cadet Sasha," Vickie warned. 

"Charlotte defected to the rebellion, maybe she had the right idea. If I was her, I wouldn't want to be stuck with you either." Sasha snarled, taking a swipe at some of the shadows that were trying to grab her. 

Her answer must have shocked Vickie because for a moment she didn't speak. If she was capable of being stunned into silence, then that was clearly happening. Slowly the shadow magic she was using receded away from Sasha. 

Sasha decided naively to push her advantage. She had never seen Hordak's second-in-command looking so weak. "Maybe you should show me some more respect, Vickie. I am not the precious golden one who abandoned you. I didn't turn my back on you and the Horde like Charlotte did." 

All at once, Vickie seemed to pull the shadows to her, making herself terrifyingly big. "YOU ARE LYING!" She roared in anger. "I am sick of your attitude and your insubordination. You are a pathetic excuse for a cadet and the only reason I put up with your insolence was because of Charlotte. You will now answer to the highest power of the Horde, Hordak himself!" The lights in the dorm room burst out all at once leaving them in complete darkness.


	7. Rise up and take your place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Charlotte and Sasha have to come to turns with their situations. They can either rise up or they can fall.

-In the Whispering Woods-

Charlotte stumbled after Nattie, wondering just how much further she would have to follow the crazy cat lady until they got to where they were going. Charlotte was winded, but it felt like Nattie was still fully energized despite being old. 

“Hey, can we take a break, maybe slow down and catch our breath?” Charlotte called, fighting to get a deep breath.

Nattie glanced over her shoulder and snorted softly. “What was that dearie?”

Charlotte groaned and tried to catch up to her. “I need you to tell me how to use my sword. I know that you know!”

Nattie crinkled her eyebrows and scoffed. “How would I know, I am just a simple person.” She replied with a shrug. 

Her answer only irritated Charlotte more. The blonde hero was certain that she probably had blistered on her feet from the amount of walking she had done since she left the Horde. She was in desperate need of a bath or a shower, anything to wipe all the gunk off of her. 

“Okay, that’s enough. The past two days have been a whirlwind of crazy, everything that I thought I knew turned out to be wrong. So can you cut me a little bit of slack and just give me a straight answer for once.” Charlotte pleaded. She was exhausted and she just wanted Nattie to not be confusing for once. 

Nattie turned to look at her, blinking owlishly. “The answer you seek isn’t that far off.” She said before resuming walking.

Charlotte rolled her eyes skyward, her hands tightening on her sword. “Look, the Rebellion hates me, I betrayed the Horde. I want to do the right thing, but nothing feels right anymore.” Charlotte groused, barely fighting the urge to want to strangle the strange woman. The blonde followed after the woman, almost bumping into her back as they got to the end of the clearing. 

Right in front of them was a snow-covered plain. Various Horde tanks were in states of disarray, and they littered the tundra. Charlotte stared at it with a look of confusion before returning her gaze to Nattie. 

Nattie looked stricken. “History repeats itself, dearie. People who are hurt, tend to hurt people. They destroy what they cannot conquer.” 

The words seemed to drive an icy shard into Charlotte’s heart. The more that she learned about how the Horde treated people, the happier she felt that she had left. She still felt guilty over leaving Sasha, but she didn’t want to dwell on that. Sasha had made her choice.

“Long ago the princesses would have protected us, but now they stay in their lands. They don’t leave their castles, I don’t blame them...but for the rest of us. For the people of Etheria, the Horde creeps closer.” Nattie said, turning to look at Charlotte. For a moment there was clarity in the older woman’s eyes like she could finally make sense of her tangled thoughts. “You are not so different from my Beth.” She mused, touching Charlotte’s cheek. 

“I am not?” Charlotte hated herself for leaning into the touch, but it wasn’t like the Horde was big on anything physical other than violence. She wrapped an arm around her midsection, trying to self-soothe.

Chuckling softly, Nattie nodded. “You are brilliant, kind, scared…”

“I am not scared.” Charlotte scoffed, her eyes narrowing. 

Nattie merely arched a brow and gave her a disbelieving look. “You ran into the forest dearie and asked a cat lady what you should do.”

Grumbling under her breath, Charlotte pouted. “Well, when you put it that way…”

“Stop waiting for somebody to magically tell you what you should do or tell you what path to take. You have to trust yourself and find that on your own.” Nattie said, patting her cheek. The old cat lady then turned and resumed walking. “Find out what you think for yourself.”

Despite her reservations, Charlotte knew that Nattie was right. At some point or another, she was going to have to decide for herself what was right or wrong. Seeing these tanks so close to the Whispering Woods gave her a feeling of unease. “This is wrong, the Horde is wrong.” 

Her words were cut off as the distant sound of a horse neighing pierced the air. Charlotte immediately perked up, she had heard that sound before when she had startled the horse way back in Brightmoon. Not even waiting for Nattie, she ran towards the sound, intent on saving her horse friend this time around. 

As she arrived at the edge of a cliff, she found the poor stallion surrounded by a small batch of Horde soldier at the bottom of the canyon. It looked like there was a horde outpost in the area, and she could see more soldiers milling about by tanks and small tents. The horse was trying to get away but one of the soldiers had thrown a net over him, completely trapping him. Charlotte could see how scared he looked. Hefting her sword to the sky, she took a deep breath.

“For the honor of Grayskull!” She whispered. 

Immediately the bright light shone and she began to transform into She-Ra. She wasn’t going to let anything hurt her horse. As her form shifted and she grew taller, she lept down from the cliff, landing with a loud thud a foot away from the trapped horse. She swung her greatsword, slicing through the net holding him down. 

Charlotte then stepped in front of the horse trying to protect it. Her moment of surprise was quickly evaporating as the Horde battalion turned their attention toward her. 

"Take your tanks and leave this place and that horse alone," Charlotte warned, her eyes darkening. 

One of the soldiers in charge took one look at her and then let out a loud yell. Charlotte flinched as more of the soldiers were alerted, but she didn't have much time to think about it, as she threw herself into the action. She was fighting with a sword against at least fifteen soldiers, who all had various shields and stun batons. It didn't matter though, not to Charlotte, not when her goal was to save the horse and allow him enough time to get far away. 

She threw her sword at one of the tanks, slicing the gun off the top of it. Nattie who had been watching Charlotte take on the Horde by herself, lept down from the cliff and grabbed onto the sword. She flung it back to Charlotte before a crazy look entered her eyes and she charged at a Horde officer. 

Charlotte would have found the sight funny if it wasn't a bit unnerving. She was worried Nattie was going to get herself hurt, so she jogged in her direction to try and bail the women out. However before she could get there, the horse flew in returning the favor of a rescue by kicking the soldier in the head. 

Relief coursed through Charlotte. "Thank you, Horsey!" She called. She turned to face the last of the enemies, only to be hit by a blast of energy from one of the tanks. The impact of the blast sent Charlotte backward, skidding across the dirt ravine. 

"Beth!" Nattie was over at her side in an instant. "Dearie are you okay?" She asked, tapping Charlotte's cheek, trying to get her up. Charlotte didn't stir. Chewing the inside of her cheek, Nattie grabbed some small berry-shaped balls from her pocket and flung them down. 

\----

When Charlotte came too, she felt something nudging at her cheek. She slowly managed to fight her way back to full consciousness and opened her eyes. She found the horse from earlier staring down at her and nudging her again. "Horsey?"

"Oh hello dearie, you're awake," Nattie said, walking over with a cup of tea.

Looking around it took Charlotte a second to realize that they were back in Nattie's hut. She wasn't sure how they had gotten there, but she had never been so glad to see that many cats in one place. She sat up and winced, grumbling under her breath. 

"Swift Wind and I have been talking, you've been out for a while. He appreciates you coming to his rescue." Nattie said, patting the horse's neck. 

Charlotte glanced at the horse and raised a brow. "Of course you can talk to horses. You're welcome Swift Wind. Why did you name him Swift Wind?"

"It's what he prefers to be called. He picked the name himself." Nattie explained as if Charlotte should have known that already. "Also he thinks you call him Horsey was stupid, a very stupid name indeed."

Side-eyeing the horse, Charlotte shrugged. "I had never met a horse before, I wasn't sure who he belonged too." She protested sheepishly.

Nattie smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you feeling better, I was worried about you. We almost didn't make it out of there Beth dearie." 

Charlotte opened her mouth to correct Nattie but then shut it. She already knew it wasn't going to make a difference. "I think I found the clarity I was looking for earlier. You mentioned that the Princesses aren't defending Etheria, well I am going too. I have to go back to Brightmoon." 

Nattie's eyes lit up. "Yes, you need to go back. I believe in you." She said, scooping up one of the cats at her feet. "I am sure I will see you again dearie." She called over her shoulder as she walked back into her hut.

Turning back to Swift Wind, Charlotte cleared her throat. "I guess I need to get back to Brightmoon, do you want to come with me?" She asked, holding out her hand to the horse. Swift Wind whinnied and then stepped forward and pressed his head into her hand. "I'll take that as a yes," Charlotte said, swinging herself up onto his back.

\----

\- Back in Brightmoon- 

"What were you thinking? Queen Stephanie snapped, still ranting at Bayley and Becky for their mistake. She was not thrilled with what they had done. 

"I had a plan." Bayley protested, trying to plead with her mom to listen. Her cheeks were starting to heat up with embarrassment as her mom yelled at her in front of the whole Brightmoon court. 

Stephanie held up a finger, she didn't even want to hear Bayley's excuses. "You brought a soldier of the Horde into Brightmoon. You didn't even tell me, you gave this soldier access to your room. How do you know they didn't send her to spy on you, you weren't thinking Commander Bayley." 

Bayley hung her head in shame, she didn't have a rebuttal for what the Queen was saying. Her mom was right, it hadn't been her most well thought out plan. 

Becky laid a hand on her shoulder and stepped forward, trying to defend her friend. "Your majesty, it was my idea to bring the Soldier back here. She saved our lives, and I thought we could trust her. Please don't blame Bay-"

"Enough, it's time for you to go home, Becky. You both are enabling each other's reckless behavior and I can't allow that." Queen Stephanie said, shifting her full attention to Becky. Her disappointment and disapproval radiated off her in overwhelming waves. 

"Mom, you can't do this! Becky is my best friend, my only friend. Please be reasonable." Bayley pleaded, ready to drop to her knees and beg if she had too. She knew she had upset her mom, but she didn't think the Queen was being reasonable. 

Suddenly the doors to the courtroom flung open and Charlotte walked in slowly, a glowing light about her as she transformed mid-step into She-Ra. The guards were too surprised by her sudden appearance to even try and stop her as she approached Queen Stephanie.

Stephanie looked like she had seen a ghost. "How is this possible? How are you, She-Ra?"

Slowly Charlotte lowered herself to a knee in front of the Brightmoon Queen. "Your majesty, I have come to pledge myself to the rebellion and to fight on your side. I was a Horde soldier, but that's not where my allegiance lies anymore. I want to help Etheria." Charlotte said, glancing up at the Queen, waiting for her judgment. 

"This is Charlotte, she was who I was trying to tell you about," Bayley interjected, stepping beside Charlotte and placing a hand on her shoulder in support. 

Charlotte laid her weapon down in front of her, offering it to the Queen. "I want to atone for what I did, for what the Horde did. Please give me a chance your majesty, I won't let you down." 

Queen Stephanie picked up the blade, weighing it in her hands. "I know the legend of the mighty warrior they called She-Ra, she was the bravest warrior and the hope for all of Etheria." She mused aloud, still not looking at Charlotte. "The First Ones said she would return to us when we needed her most. That she would be the one to save us. Here you stand before us, in the uniform of a Horde soldier." 

Charlotte lowered her head. "I understand your Majesty." This wasn't going as well as she had hoped it would. She could already sense that the queen didn't like her. 

"Would you pledge to fight against those you once stood with? Will you bring Balance back to Etheria?" 

The question caught Charlotte by surprise. She looked up at the Queen, meeting her gaze again. Her thoughts shifted to Vickie, to her battalion, and Sasha. A flash of weird pain in her chest seemed to flare up and she had to swallow down the lump in her throat. Now wasn't the time to be weak. 

"Yes, I will," Charlotte said, forcing the three words out. 

"Bayley, will you vouch for her? If she betrays us, it's on you. Will you accept that responsibility?" Queen Stephanie asked, her voice shaking a little bit. 

Bayley squeezed Charlotte's shoulder in an attempt to reassure her. "Yes!" 

The Queen of Brightmoon slowly nodded and then held the sword out to Charlotte hilt-first. "Then rise! The rebellion accepts your allegiance, She-Ra, Princess of Power."

Charlotte wasn't sure how else to describe it, other than a feeling of something clicking into place. She took the sword and got back to her feet, feeling for the first time in a long time, like she was at peace with herself. 

"Welcome to Brightmoon!" Bayley cheered, launching herself at Charlotte with a huge hug. 

"Officially this time!!" Becky added, joining the group hug. 

Charlotte wasn't sure what to think as she glanced around. She could hear the rest of the court cheering for her, a warm feeling of acceptance blooming in her chest, replacing the previous anxiety. She wrapped her arms around her new friends and hugged them close.

\---------

-Back in the Fright Zone-

Sasha was trying to keep herself calm as Vickie all but forced her into Hordak's throne room. The whole place was creepy with wires and different objects covering most of the room. Vickie's nails were digging painfully into her arm, but she tried to ignore it. Sasha knew very well that at any moment, Lord Hordak could say she was unworthy and kill her. She heard the sound of buzzing as different mechanical arms worked away on a figure at the top of the pedestal. 

"Excuse me, Lord Hordak. I have brought this unfortunate Cadet to you for disobeying orders. She needs to be punished." Vickie said, before forcefully throwing Sasha to her knees on the steps that led up to the throne. "Kneel!"

Sasha trembled despite her usual bravado. The throne loomed ahead of her as she visibly flinched as the light reflected off of Hordak as he turned. He looked like one of those vampire creatures, Sasha wasn't sure which parts of him were real or robotic. She wasn't one for respect or reverence but she managed to keep her mouth shut. 

"I gave her one task, she was supposed to return Force Captain Charlotte to the Fright Zone but she failed. Her cowardice led to the rescue mission being botched." Vickie continued, fully intent on throwing Sasha under the bus. 

Hordak moved into the light, his features even scarier now. "So you mean to tell me you're still without a Force Captain?"

"For the moment, yes, but we will find Force Captain Adora. I will not let anything prevent us from bringing her back to the Fright Zone where she belongs." Vickie promised, a smug tone filtering through her voice. 

"No! You will elect another Force Captain, and resume your duties. We don't have the time or resources to waste on an AWOL soldier." Hordak replied dismissively. 

Sasha could swear that she almost saw Vickie pop a gasket beneath her hideous mask. Vickie was now trembling with anger as well, which brought a smug satisfaction to Sasha who hated her. 

"M-My Lord, Charlotte is the only one ready and worthy of becoming a Force Captain." Vickie protested, her voice becoming more shrill. 

"You have another, wasn't Sasha your ward as well?" Hordak seemed amused by Vickie's disdain for Sasha. "Did you not train her well?" 

Vickie's hands balled into fists at her side. "She's defective and she was never as good as Charlotte." 

"If you have failed to condition her properly, then that is on you, Vickie. You can only blame yourself." Hordak replied, utterly bored with the conversation. 

Sasha was still scared, but if she had to die, she was going to enjoy the fact that she got to witness Hordak slapping Vickie down like the hand of God. She had never seen the woman so thoroughly cowed before. 

Vickie bristled at the insinuation, magic crackling between her fingertips. The shadows in the room seemed to grow larger somehow as her magic pulsed. "But my Lord!"

"Enough from you, I grow tired of the sound of your voice. Rise and take your place as a Force Captain Sasha." Hordak commanded. 

Sasha was stunned but didn't dare to disobey Hordak. She slowly got to her feet, forcing herself to meet the glowing red eyes as Hordak edged closer. He opened his hand, holding out the Force Captain's badge to her. Sasha took it and then pinned it to her uniform. The leader of the Horde gave a curious hum, before chuckling and making his way back up to the throne. 

A slowly smirk spread across Sasha's features. She was still upset that Charlotte had betrayed and abandoned her, but now she didn't need her. She was no longer in Charlotte's shadow which was fine by her, and seeing Hordak bully Vickie into submission had been sweet. Sasha was done being pushed around, she was a Force Captain now, and she was going to enjoy every single second of it.


	8. The princess alliance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlotte adapts to life at Brightmoon and proving herself to the princess alliance. Sasha's gloating about being a force captain leads to an awkward moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warning: The last scene of this chapter, is kind of dealing with Vickie/Sasha's dynamic. Vickie is kind of an abusive guardian, so if that sort of thing triggers you, maybe skip the last scene of this chapter.

\- In Brightmoon-

To say that Bayley was excited for Charlotte to stay in Brightmoon was an understatement. She was practically bouncing off the walls as she led Charlotte into the castle to show her around. She couldn’t believe her mother had actually allowed Charlotte to stay, she would have thought she’d have to do more pleading. Queen Stephanie wasn’t exactly known for being a pushover, even for Bayley. 

“I can’t believe you get to stay, I am so excited!” Bayley squealed, clamping a hand on Charlotte’s shoulders. 

Charlotte for her part seemed a little wary, Bayley going from being aggressive and hostile in the forest to be happy to have her around was something she was going to need to get used too. She plastered a fake smile across her face, not wanting to come across as ungrateful. Now that Queen Stephanie had welcomed her into Brightmoon and the Rebellion, everybody seemed to accept her. That was a good sign, but Charlotte wasn’t used to this sort of warm reception, the Horde and Fright Zone definitely weren’t like this. 

“Yeah, it’s really awesome here,” Charlotte replied, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck.

If Bayley heard the weird inflection of her tone, she didn’t comment on it. She was too busy listing the different places she wanted to show Charlotte and trying to fill her in on the drama that happened in the Brightmoon courts. 

They came to a large room at the end of yet another hallway. Bayley flashed a bright smile at Charlotte and nodded to the door. “This will be your room!”

Charlotte slowly opened the door unsure of what to expect. Somehow the room still managed to exceed all of her expectations. While in the Horde, she had lived in a dormitory that was packed full of bunk beds, her new room seemed like it could house two of those rooms. The ceiling was massive, as was the bed that lay in the center of the room. 

Bright colors and shades of golden and white littered the room. It looked so pristine that Charlotte didn’t even want to step foot inside of it, for fear that she might taint it somehow. Charlotte swallowed hard, feeling small and insignificant in the grand scheme of things. 

“Do you like it?” Bayley asked, clearing hoping that Charlotte did. 

“It’s very nice.” Charlotte kept her tone even. She wasn’t even sure what to do with a room this big, it felt like she could get lost in it. 

“I am glad you like it. Well, I’ll be down the hall if you need anything.” Bayley added, before abruptly leaving before Charlotte could argue. 

The blonde watched the princess go and frowned. She did not feel comfortable in the slightest being in the room by herself. Charlotte had never had these sorts of luxuries before and she wasn’t sure what to do with herself. 

There was a bathroom, a lounge area, the massive bed, everything she could ever desire contained in one room. Despite how nice it all seemed, it filled her with a sense of loneliness and dread. 

Flopping down on the massive bed, Charlotte let out a startled yelp as she sank into the mattress. She fought her way off the bed and glared at the blankets. 

“I guess I am sleeping on the floor then.” She muttered. She didn’t trust the bed not to swallow her whole, it was too soft and didn’t offer a lot of support. 

She lasted a whole five minutes of trying to get comfortable on the floor before she gave up. She couldn’t sleep by herself, not in the room. Cautiously she made her way towards the door and poked her head out. While the Rebellion had accepted her pledge, she had an inkling they didn’t trust her yet. She couldn’t blame them, but it made her wonder if they were going to stick guards outside her door. 

It seemed her fears were for not, as there weren't any guards posted directly outside her room. Charlotte ventured the rest of the way out and set off down the hallway to try and find Bayley’s room. She made it about half-way down the hallway, before she turned the corner and collided with the Queen. 

“Oh my gosh, oh god, I am so sorry ma’am..I mean your majesty, ma’am.” Charlotte flushed a bright red, reaching out to steady the Queen of Brightmoon before thinking better of it. 

Queen Stephanie stared at her for a moment, and simply raised a brow. She then shifted her attention to the mural she had been looking at. Her features seemed to soften, her posture relaxing. “When things get overwhelming, I like to come here and think. It helps me find clarity.” She explained softly. 

Charlotte followed her gaze, staring at the mural of a man who looked a little similar to Bayley. “Who is that?” She asked, though she already had an inkling of who it was.

“King Roman, he was my husband...Bayley’s father.” Stephanie replied, her tone becoming almost wistful. “Together we built the Rebellion, but the Horde killed him.” 

Internally Charlotte flinched a little, recalling what Bayley had mentioned in the Whispering Woods. A lot of the people in Brightmoon and the rest of Etheria had lost people due to the Horde’s actions. It made her want to vomit. 

“I am sorry your majesty, I didn’t know.” 

“Of course you didn’t. Let’s get a few things straight, Bayley vouched for you, and that alone is the only reason I am allowing you to stay. But should you betray her trust or the Rebellion…” The Queen trailed off, leaving the threat hanging heavy in the air between them. She was making it clear that she wouldn’t hesitate to do what was necessary to protect her family and her kingdom. 

Then with that, the Queen walked away, leaving Charlotte standing in her wake. Charlotte watched Stephanie go and sighed softly, wondering just what she was going to have to do to win her over. 

\----

Bayley was just starting to wake up the next morning when her foot collided with something at the end of her bed. She slowly opened her eyes and then startled when she realized that Charlotte was asleep at the foot of her bed. She stumbled backward off the side of her bed and all the way down to the floor, landing there with a thump. 

Charlotte glanced over the edge of the bed and frowned. “Oh gosh are you alright?” 

“Why are you in my bed?” Bayley snapped, rubbing at her now sore backside. “You have your own room.” 

“Well, I am not used to sleeping in my room by myself. It makes me anxious.” Charlotte mumbled sheepishly. She hadn’t meant to upset Bayley, but by the way, the girl was looking at her, she could tell that she had. 

“So you came to my room?” Bayley asked arching a brow. 

Drawing her knees to her chest, Charlotte shrugged. “I was going to ask you, but then I totally ran into your mom in the hallway. She hates my guts dude.” 

Bayley rolled her eyes. “No she doesn’t, you’re She-Ra the Princess of Power. She doesn’t hate you.” She argued. 

Charlotte returned her glance with a disbelieving one of her own. “But I’m not just She-Ra, I’m also Charlotte the former Horde soldier.” 

Bayley used her powers to teleport back on the bed and placed a comforting hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. “She can be intimidating sometimes, but she’ll warm up to you eventually.” 

The former Horde soldier wasn’t sure that was actually going to be the case but she didn’t argue. She didn’t want to hurt Bayley’s feelings or cause her any distress, not after what Stephanie had told her. She had a sinking feeling in her gut that Stephanie wasn’t going to truly trust her anytime soon. 

“Come on, the weekly war meeting with the other princesses is today. She invited you and she wants you there, that has to mean something. If she still thought you were going to betray us, would she have let you join?” Bayley asked, trying to appeal to Charlotte’s logical side. She didn’t like seeing her so sad.

Charlotte did brighten at that, she was a pretty good strategist and she was eager to prove herself. “Yeah, okay. Maybe I can prove my worth to your mom that way.” She conceded. 

\---

A little while later, Charlotte, Becky, and Bayley made their way into the war room. Charlotte was immediately struck by the stained glass walls, and the large round table in the middle that held a map of Etheria. It was a massive oak table, ringed by multiple chairs that currently sat empty. 

“Come on, the meeting is almost starting,” Bayley said tugging at her elbow. 

“But there is hardly anybody here.” Charlotte pointed out, a little confused. She had assumed that the rebellion was full of brave princesses that were leading the charge against the Horde. 

Becky exchanged a knowing look with Bayley and cleared her throat. “Don’t worry about it. Why don’t we just find our seats.” She suggested. 

Charlotte definitely thought that deflection and abrupt conversation-change was weird. “Why are all the chairs empty Bayley?” 

Bayley sighed and ran a hand through her short hair. “Well, those chairs belong to the other Princesses of Etheria. But as the Rebellion has waged on, they haven’t been active. They’re too busy defending their lands, not that I can fault them. Bright Moon isn’t as strong as it used to be, and a lot of people are losing hope.” 

Her answer seemed to stun Charlotte, who followed after her blindly. The blonde was having a hard time comprehending the fact that it had been Brightmoon holding the Horde off by themselves. “They can just not show up?” She asked in disbelief. 

“Well, a few years ago we suffered a pretty big defeat thanks to the Horde. It crushed a lot of people’s spirits.” Bayley replied, sounding oddly sad. It broke her heart to see that the Rebellion was just a shell of what it had once been. 

“Not a lot of people come to the meetings, except for Billie and Peyton,” Becky said, before leaning over to Charlotte, so she could whisper to her. “We’re not sure what they do exactly.” 

Charlotte glanced across the table, realizing for the first time that there were two girls there. The tall chairs had hidden them pretty well. She forced a smile. “Hey.” She greeted them warmly. 

The two girls smiled and waved back politely at her. “Nice to meet you She-ra.” One of them called. 

Charlotte swallowed hard. “Um, you can just call me Charlotte.” 

“Ah ain’t that adorable mate.” The tallest one said, nudging the smaller one. “I’m Billie and this here is Peyton.” 

“That’s a cute name,” Peyton added. 

Charlotte felt her cheeks heat up and quickly looked to her friends. She wasn’t used to people being so friendly. She took her seat at the table and watched as everybody’s expression seemed to immediately shift into looks of panic. 

“What?” Charlotte asked, confused. 

A throat cleared from beside her. “That isn’t your chair.” Slowly the blonde lifted her gaze, finding Bayley’s mom glaring down at her. Queen Stephanie did not look pleased to see her. 

Bayley stepped in between Stephanie and Charlotte. “Sorry mom, it’s her first day. She didn’t mean anything by it.” Bayley was clearly trying to cover for her, as she all but dragged Charlotte from the chair and shoved her into a different one. 

“What did I do wrong?” Charlotte questioned, looking between her friends. She felt like there were so many unspoken rules to this place. 

“You sat in my dad’s chair,” Bayley said, her voice cracking a little bit. The heir to Brightmoon looked like she was about to cry but somehow managed to hold it in. 

Charlotte’s face fell and she looked remorseful. “I am sorry, I didn’t know. I didn't mean anything by it." 

Bayley just placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. She could tell Charlotte was trying her best and she wasn’t angry. 

Queen Stephanie cleared her throat once again and looked at the assembled group. “I have asked you all here today because I have received a distress call from princess Princess Nikki. The Horde is laying siege to her kingdom. She’s asking for help from the rebellion.” Stephanie looked tired like she had somehow aged from all the stress and pressure she was under. She stepped aside so the captain of her guard could give the rest of the briefing. 

Charlotte tried to pay attention to what was being said. What she gathered was that this Princess Nikki lived in her kingdom called Plumeria. It seemed like a sort of garden region with lots of vegetation if the video clips were anything to go off of. Charlotte felt an urge to help this other princess, she wanted to prove her usefulness to the Rebellion. 

“Brightmoon is going to provide food and aid to the people of her kingdom,” Stephanie said, clasping her hands in front of her. She raised a brow as Bayley raised a hand. “What is it, Commander Bayley?” 

“I have a better idea-”

“I am going to cut you off right there. We are not going to fight the Horde, you suggest that every time, and I remind you every time that fighting them head-on is not our strength,” Stephanie said sharply, ignoring how crestfallen Bayley looked. 

Charlotte watched the mother and daughter interact and bit her lip. She knew she shouldn’t interfere, she was already on thin ice, but she couldn’t help it. “Why don’t you send me, Bayley and Becky as a sort of small party relief mission. It’ll be easier to travel with a smaller party and it won’t attract as much attention from the Horde. I can go as She-Ra.” Charlotte suggested, trying to give a sort of compromise.

Queen Stephanie stared at her for a long, hard minute, uncertainty lingering in the Queen’s eyes. “I don’t know, it could be dangerous.” 

“I promise to protect Bayley and Becky if the Horde attacks. I won’t let you down.” Charlotte was eager to prove herself. She knew that Bayley and Becky felt the same way, they wanted to prove that they were capable warriors. 

Stephanie sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, taking a deep breath. The Queen was trying to use her best judgment but the trio kept giving her puppy dog eyes. "Fine, I will allow it this once. Take the supplies and food to Plumeria, but then I want you to come right back. You leave at Dawn, so please rest up and prepare." She watched as the three high five each other and just shook her head. She already had a bad feeling about this. 

\-----

-In the Fright Zone-

Naomi barely dodged a strike from a machine, rolling under one of it's stomping legs and hit it with her stun baton. Since Charlotte had bailed on them, and Sasha was off doing whatever the heck she did, Naomi had been forced to step up as the unofficial leader of their battalion. She watched with a look if disapproval as Dana, Finn, and AJ continued getting their backsides kicked by the bot. 

"Come on Finn," Naomi grumbled as the bot backhanded him and sent her comrade skittering hard across the floor. "Where the heck is Sasha? She is supposed to be here, helping us out. This is just like her to not show up!" They were supposed to have a certain number of cadets for each training exercise and once again they were being left out to dry. 

"I don't have to show up, not anymore," Sasha announced as she sauntered up behind Naomi. She was all swagger as her Force Captain's badge was pinned to her chest and gleaming. "I am not longer a cadet." Sasha gloated proudly, more than willing to show off her accomplishment. 

Naomi rolled her eyes. "You got promoted, you of all people. You're lazy as hell." Naomi grumbled, clearly resentful. At least with Charlotte, she felt like it was deserved. In the opinion of the rest of the squadron, Sasha never pulled her share of the weight but was always willing to grab the glory. 

"Congrats Sasha," Finn called giving her a thumbs up, as he was once again snagged by the bot and flung like a rag doll against the wall. 

Dana and AJ both managed to mumble their congrats, but it was more out of obligation. They didn't want to get on the wrong side of a power-hungry Sasha, especially when she had been given a position of power. None of them trusted her to not use her position to make their lives miserable. Charlotte would have been able to curb some of Sasha's more dangerous impulses, but since Charlotte had abandoned ship, Sasha had been on a vindictive streak. 

"Hordak knows a true leader when he sees one. I was meant for this." Sasha said, a wild light in her eyes. Inside she was still hurting but if she had to be in pain then she was going to make sure she took everybody with her. "Now that I am in charge, things are going to change. Vickie won't be the only one-"

Sasha's words cut off rapidly as the air around her seemed to drop more than a couple of degrees. She felt Vickie's presence before she even heard her. Slowly she turned and found Vickie glaring down at her with a look of annoyance. 

Vickie said nothing, she simply pointed towards the lockerroom. Sasha normally wasn't the type to allow anybody to boss her around, but she wasn't dumb to the fact that she had been pushing Vickie's buttons a lot. Sasha knew where the line was and she could tell that Vickie was very close to lashing out at her, so she did as she was told. 

"Have you decided to give me my first mission, I don't see why else you would interrupt my training session with my squadron." Sasha question, even if she was going to behave, she couldn't help but needle Vickie a little. 

The shadows around Vickie seemed to increase, making her look taller. "You will explain to me again how you lost Charlotte." Vickie was visibly trembling, anger radiating off of her. 

Sasha crossed her arms over her chest defiantly. Of course, Vickie was only here to ask about Charlotte, their guardian had never made any secret of the fact that she openly preferred Charlotte. "Has it ever occurred to you that she left to get away from you? She hated it here, she bounced at the first opportunity. I didn't lose her, she chose the Rebellion to get away from us." Sasha snapped, some of her own feelings bleeding through her words. 

"What did you do to make her leave, it has to be your fault. She was the perfect Force Captain." Vickie snapped, shoving Sasha back against the lockers. 

Fire blazed to life in Sasha's eyes, as her back hit the cold lockers. "I didn't do anything. This isn't my fault." Sasha argued, nails cutting into her palms as she clenched her fist. "She left you, she left me! She's clearly not as loyal as you thought, you can't blame that on me!"

Vickie's hands shot out, the shadows starting to wrap around Sasha again. She was ready to rip her heart out, but as soon as she got close to touching Sasha, she tensed up like she was being electrocuted. Immediately she shrank back, a cry of pain tearing from her throat. 

Despite herself, a look of concern flickered through Sasha's expression. "Are you okay?" She asked, reaching out to check on Vickie. 

Vickie slapped her hands away. "Don't touch me." She growled fleeing from the room. 

Sasha watched her go, a look of utter confusion etching its way on her face. "What the heck was that?" She wondered allowed. She was glad Vickie hadn't hurt her, but she wasn't sure what had compelled Vickie to stop.


	9. Flowers for She-ra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlotte tries to help the people of Plumeria.

-In Plumeria-

Bayley frowned as she entered the village of Plumeria. She had expected it to be bright and vibrant just like its inhabitants, instead, the trees that ringed the village were mostly grey and lifeless. That didn’t seem to stop the children or adults of the village who were lazing out playing and chatting with each other. 

“Your mom didn’t say anything about the trees and plant life being dead.” Becky mused, adjusting the strap of her quiver, situating it better on her back. It had been a long journey from Brightmoon and they were all a little tired. 

“I honestly don’t think my mom has any idea how bad things are out here,” Bayley admitted. Since the Princess Alliance had broken down, it wasn’t like news traveled that freely between the different kingdoms. 

Becky just grunted her understanding, she glanced around, realizing for the first time that Charlotte wasn’t right beside them. “Where is Charlotte?” She questioned, slowly turning in a circle as she tried to spot the blonde warrior. “Charlotte?!”

Leaping up onto a fallen tree trump Charlotte grinned at them. She was in her She-Ra form, her armor glittering in the sunlight. “I’m right here.” 

Bayley frowned and slowly raised a brow. “Are you seriously going to be She-Ra the entire time?” 

Charlotte looked down at her armor and then back at Bayley. “Yeah, I mean why not. The people of Plumeria might accept me more if I am She-Ra. Plus your mom told me too, and I want to be on Queen Stephanie's good side."

"I am sure you not being your true self will work out perfectly," Bayley muttered, her tone dripping with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes. 

Becky interrupted their dispute by roughly grabbing them by the shoulders and point them in the direction of a huge column of smoke. "What the heck is that?" 

"It looks like it's coming from the Horde camp." Charlotte scowled, narrowing her eyes, trying to get a better view of the smoke. It definitely looked like something was on fire. 

"Oh thank god you're here!" 

A squeal just left to the trio, had them rapidly turning to see a tiny brunette approaching them, with a flower crown in her hair. She looked like she was either about to hug them or attack them, Charlotte wasn't really sure which. 

"Princess Nikki, I'm Commander Bayley from Brightmoon," Bayley said, squaring her shoulders and holding out her hand. She was trying to be as professional as possible. 

Almost immediately a bouquet of flowers appeared in her hand, as well as a flower crown for Becky. Bayley stared at the flowers and then at the other princess. "Um, thank you." She said, a bit surprised but impressed by her magic. 

"Oh, I get a hat!" Becky said, touching the flower crown. 

Nikki looked right past them though as she caught sight of She-Ra. "Oh my goodness, it's the She-Ra." She said almost reverently She gestured for her villagers to follow her. "The universe has heard our cries of suffering and has sent us the mighty warrior She-Ra. She will help us save our home!"

Charlotte forced a small smile and nodded, not nearly as confident as Nikki seemed to be. She hopped down from the tree stump and did her best to be reassuring. "We heard about the blockade that the Horde is imposing and we've come to help you. We brought some food and supplies for you,"

Nikki looked like she was about to cry. "Oh thank you, She-Ra. Welcome to Plumeria." 

All at once, the other villagers swarmed Charlotte, trying to hug and thank the hero who had saved them. Charlotte who was still getting used to any kind of affectionate contact looked utterly uncomfortable. "Um, what's going on?" She hissed to Bayley. 

"I will show you around Plumeria, follow me around." Nikki insisted, turning and walking away, gesturing for Charlotte, Bayley, and Becky to follow her. 

“I guess we’re following.” Charlotte looked to her friends, but they seemed just as put off as she was. So without any more hesitation, she began to follow after Nikki. 

Nikki waited until Charlotte fell in step with her, before flashing a dazzling smile. “Plumeria is such a beautiful place to live, or it was. My people have lived here a thousand years, we are known for the lush gardens and flowers. Normally we are peaceful people.” She explained, gesturing around to the different parts of the village as she explained to the trio where they were.

“You have such a lovely and beautiful home,” Bayley said, trying to be polite as ever. 

Nikki nodded but otherwise ignored her statement. She gestured to her left towards a large tree with a huge pink gem embedded into its trunk. Charlotte had never seen a tree that big or with that many branches. It had pink cherry blossoms on it, the leaves seemingly falling like snowflakes.   
“This is the Heartblossom, it marks the center of my kingdom. It also gives me my powers.” Nikki explained, lightly tapping the gemstone on the tree. It was easily the size of her face and glimmering with magical energy. 

Becky looked around at the other trees that seemed to be wilting and then to the Heartblossom. “How come this tree is fine and the other ones are dying?” 

A sad look entered the princess of Plumeria’s eyes. She awkwardly looked to the ground, wringing her hands nervously. “Our land is going through a bit of a hard time. Ever since the Horde has set up camp nearby with their blockade, the forest surrounding Plumeria is dying. Hopefully, the universe will right itself, but there is really no telling.” She was clearly trying to sound optimistic, but the way that her voice cracked, signaled that Nikki was starting to lose hope. 

“You haven’t tried to do anything to stop the Horde?” Charlotte asked, more curious than anything else. 

Nikki’s expression seemed a bit strained. “The Heartblossom is still healthy, and I am doing what I can for my kingdom. I have to believe that things will resolve in a positive and peaceful manner.” 

Charlotte wanted to tell her that was a load of crap, but she held her tongue. She could sense that the woman was struggling to keep it together and she didn’t want to make things worse for her by picking at a sore spot.

“Look, I know it may seem strange but my people are peaceful. We don’t seek out conflict, anyways the She-Ra is here, and we’d like to throw you a celebration.” Nikki said, taking Charlotte by the hand. The blonde looked totally uncomfortable with the contact but still allowed it. 

“A celebration, I am not sure that’s necessary.” Charlotte protested. 

“Oh but it is. We have been blessed to see the She-Ra, now please come.” Nikki snapped her fingers, using her magic to form a flower crown on top of Charlotte’s head. 

\------

\- In the fright Zone -

Vickie staggered towards the large Black Garnet, the gemstone that helped power the Fright Zone. The Garnet had been powering all of the machines and technology for as long as she had been there. It was a great source of power but the energy could be fickle. The small gem on her head was dull, but it seemed to light up the second that she placed her hands on the Garnet. It was agonizing and she could feel the pain from not having recharged her powers in a while. She had done her best to study the magic of the garnet and normally she didn’t need to recharge as much the princesses of Etheria did. The Black Garnet seemed to try and refuse her, but Vickie was intent on bending the magic to her will. 

“Vickie!” 

She turned sharply towards one of the screen ports, horrified to find Hordak staring at her angrily. “Yes Lord Hordak?” She asked, dipping her head respectfully. 

“You disobeyed a direct order. I gave you the power to use the Black Garnet and I can take it away.” Hordak warned. The gemstone seemed to pulse with a barely contained energy. It was enough to almost drive Vickie to her knees. 

“I assure you, I don’t know what you’re talking about Lord Hordak. Your will is my will, I am obedient, your most faithful servant.” Vickie promised, her voice edging towards a hysterical tone. 

Hordak did not look pleased with all her excuses. If anything his blood-red eyes seemed to narrow as he snarled at her through the screen. His patience had been running thin and looked on the edge of snapping. 

“Tell me then why you sent more troops to look for one missing soldier? I know what you did.” Hordak snapped, finally getting to the root of why he was upset. “I told you to give up on Charlotte.” 

Vickie’s hands clenched at her sides, drawing herself up to her full height, she glared down the monitor screen. “Finding Charlotte is important, she’s the future of our plans, she’s essential to our mission,” Vickie argued in protest. 

“Enough!” Hordak roared, waiting until she was thoroughly cowed. He slammed his fist hard down on the armrest of his throne. “I will tell you what is essential to our mission and that is killing the rest of the Whispering Woods. We have weakened it, but now it is time to strike that final nail into the coffin. Go to Plumeria and end the siege there once and for all, it’s time we squash those Princesses. Am I understood?” 

It took everything inside Vickie to not lash out at the screen, her magic was crackling at her fingertips. She didn’t dare to defy him like that again, it would only signal trouble. “I understand Lord Hordak.” 

She waited until the screen went dark, before letting out a blood-curdling scream. The shadows spread from her body snuffing out every source of light in the immediate area. The shadows were thick and suffocating with her anger. 

\-----

-Back in Plumeria-

Charlotte sat cross-legged, an assortment of food placed before her. She looked uncertain as she stared at the food and then at the people who were bringing it to her. She really didn’t think it was necessary for them to be doing this, but she didn’t want to be rude. 

Holding up her hands, Charlotte shook her head. “No, really no more. I can’t eat another bite, you have all been too kind.” She said, wishing that they would eat the food, instead of trying to offer it to her like she was some sort of god. “I insist, you eat it.”

“It is our highest honor to serve the She-Ra.” One of the villagers called, trying to press a basket of food into her hands. 

The blonde was starting to feel freaked out and uncomfortable. “The She-Ra appreciates that, but I’d rather you eat. You need it more than I do, please.” Charlotte pleaded. She appreciated the fact that they wanted to honor her, but them giving away all their food seemed counterproductive. 

“We are just so honored that you came to visit us,” Nikki said as she walked over. She sat down beside Charlotte, really studying her for a moment. “It’s been centuries but finally She-Ra has returned to us.” 

Taking a deep breath, Charlotte wasn’t sure if she should tell Nikki that she wasn’t the same She-Ra as the one in the legend. She had a feeling the news would most likely crush the flower princess. 

“You have come back to us in our greatest time of need, just like the stories said you would.” 

Charlotte blinked in surprise. “What stories?” 

Nikki waved her hands and a few intricate pieces of wood were brought out to show Charlotte. They had intricate carvings of what assumed was She-Ra and the Sword of Power. It gave her a weird feeling of anxiety in her chest, but she tried to keep a lid on it. 

“Long ago She-Ra defeated the great beast of Beast Island. She saved all of Etheria.” Nikki explained, eyes wide with excitement. 

“There are many legends about She-Ra,” Bayley explained, trying to fill Charlotte in. 

Charlotte awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck, wondering if perhaps she should have come as herself instead of her She-Ra form. She didn’t want to let the people of Plumeria down, but she had a feeling they were going to be disappointed when they found out. 

“We’re excited for you to heal our land and bring all our plants back to life.” Nikki continued, her eyes wide with excitement. 

Charlotte’s jaw dropped. “Wait what?” She felt like maybe she had misheard her. 

“Are you going to do it before we do the drum-circle or after?” 

“Whoa, hold up. You want me to heal your land?” Charlotte wasn’t even aware she could do that. The former Horde soldier was still figuring out what she could and couldn’t do thanks to the sword. “Look I don’t know if I can do that, but what I do know is the Horde is up to something. We should check it out,” Charlotte added gesturing to the looming smoke in the distance. 

Princess Nikki looked around her people and then back to Charlotte. “My people are lovers, not fighters, we are pacifist. Why can’t you just heal our land?”

Charlotte scowled a little bit. “Because I don’t know how to. I just got these powers, I don’t know how they work.” 

“My power is literally having to do with plants. We’re not strong enough to go up against the Horde. It would be a slaughter.” Nikki replied, making a large flower with her powers only to watch it start to wither and die immediately. “All we want is just to live peacefully.” 

Charlotte sighed and grabbed Bayley and Becky by the hand. “I just need a minute.” She said, dipping her head respectfully to Nikki, before dragging her friends a bit of a distance away so that she could talk to them. “I don’t know how to heal her lands or help her. All I know how to do is fight.” Charlotte hissed out to them. 

She wasn’t even sure how she had managed to turn Swiftwind from a regular horse into a flying unicorn. Charlotte wasn’t even sure about the stories they were telling of the old She-Ra. It wasn’t like the Horde had been all that forthcoming with those sorts of things. 

“Well, legend says that you have healing powers, so surely it must be true,” Becky said, folding her arms across her chest. She was wearing her thinking expression. 

Bayley nodded in agreement. “Yeah, there has to be some truth to it. Maybe just use your sword. Try and concentrate, that’s usually how you transform right?”

“These powers are finicky at best.” Charlotte gripped her sword, staring down at the jewel. She didn’t know how it worked, and she hated letting people down. She closed her eyes, trying to focus her power. What came next wasn’t healing. 

She managed to energy blast a hole right through the center of a tree trunk. Bayley thankfully had teleported out of the way. 

“Okay, so maybe that’s the opposite of healing.” Bayley frowned, inspecting the giant crater in the tree. “Good to know you can do that, but let’s not do that one again.” 

“You will figure it out Charlotte. Don’t put so much pressure on yourself.” Becky insisted, trying to comfort her again. “You’ll get it sooner rather than later.” 

“Nikki is expecting me to save her land now though. How am I supposed to help her, when I can’t give her what she’s looking for?” Charlotte buried her face in her hands, trying to keep her emotions in check. She was starting to feel a familiar sense of despair. 

The flower crown that was around Charlotte’s head began to wilt. She looked confused as it slowly faded to dust, the magic that held it together dissipating. 

Nikki raced into the clearing looking panic. “She-Ra, come quick, the heart blossom is dying.” Nikki pleaded, sounding frantic. 

Charlotte gasped and followed her to the heart blossom. She placed her hand against the gem, trying to will herself to somehow heal the tree. She wasn’t sure it was going to work, but she didn’t want to give up. Charlotte tried to focus all her magic, but finally, she stepped back and dropped her She-Ra form. 

The people of Plumeria stared at the former Horde soldier in shock, as she seemed to shrink and her magical armor went away. 

“I am sorry, I thought I could do this, but I can’t,” Charlotte said, hanging her head in shame. 

“Who are you and where is She-Ra?” Nikki questioned. 

“This is Charlotte, she was chosen to carry the Sword of Power. She is She-Ra, but she’s also just Charlotte. The Sword lets her transform.” Bayley explained, coming to Charlotte’s aid. She was trying to help her explain. 

Charlotte awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. “I am still learning how to use my She-Ra powers, I don’t know how to heal yet. I am sorry.” 

“So you can’t save us or our land?” Nikki’s lower lip was trembling and she looked like she was about to break down. 

“Look I don’t know how to heal, but I know a lot about the Horde. I think I can stop them, I can go where the smoke is and try to put an end to whatever they're doing, crush whatever machine they are using to poison your land.” Charlotte didn’t know how to heal, but she knew how to fight. 

“You are not the She-Ra from the legends, how can you stop them?” A villager called out, staring at Charlotte with a look of disgust. 

Charlotte frowned, the person’s words hitting her like a ton of bricks. She didn’t have an answer for the people of Plumeria, but she was going to try and help them anyways.

Nikki stared at her, but then turned to face her people. “We will just have to hope that the Horde gets repaid by the universe for all their evil deeds. We leave today, gather your things, hopefully, we can get away before the Horde sees us.” 

Bayley moved to Charlotte’s side as Becky joined them, the trio watching as Nikki began evacuating her people away. “I can’t believe they’re not even going to fight,” Bayley muttered, tightening her hand into a pair of fists at her side. 

As the Princess of Brightmoon, Bayley couldn’t comprehend just giving up on a fight, it wasn’t in her nature. She had always been hungry to get the Horde back for taking away her father, but apparently, nobody else shared her blood lust. 

“I just wanted to help them, but all I’ve done is make things worse and let them down.” Charlotte sighed. She hadn’t felt this worthless or hopeless since leaving the Horde. At least in the Horde, she had known what was expected, being She-Ra was a whole new ball game. “You guys talked me up and I couldn’t deliver, I am sorry.” 

Becky reached out a hand and squeezed Charlotte’s. “You being She-Ra is not the reason we like you. You’re more than just She-Ra and we should have talked to you before we got everybody hyped up. We are sorry.” 

Bayley nodded, echoing Becky’s sentiments. “We’re the best friend squad, we’ll figure this out together.” The Princess promised. 

Another loud crash echoed and Charlotte stood to her feet. “I think I have a plan to stop the Horde from killing the woods around Plumeria.” 

“Well, let’s hear it.” Becky always loved a good plan. 

Charlotte eyed her two friends and then flashed a wicked smile. “How do you two feel about going undercover and stealing some Horde uniforms. We can take out the patrol, steal their gear, and then sneak into the camp.” 

“Sounds good to me.” Bayley mused, magic crackling between her finger. 

\-----

-A little while later at the Horde camp-

It hadn't taken long to find a Horde scouting patrol and take them out. Charlotte having been a senior cadet, knew the way that the Horde operated and laid out their battle stations. She had always studied up on the formations because she had wanted to be a great Force Captain. But now that she had the knowledge, she was going to use it to take down the evil institution. 

"Alright, we've got our uniforms. Now we need to find where that machine is. Almost all the Horde outposts and camps are laid out the same way, so we should be able to find it." Charlotte mused, trying to explain to her friends where they would need to go. "Guard patrols shift every thirty minutes, so put on your helmets and let's go. The shift changes in three, two... one." 

Charlotte put on her helmet, thankful that it would disguise her, from anybody that could recognize her. She didn't need for her cover to be blown and she definitely didn't want to go back to the Fright Zone. Charlotte led the way into the camp and towards a large tent that was set up in the middle. She gave a sharp salute and muttered something about the change. 

Waiting until it was clear, she gestured for Becky and Bayley to follow her into the tent. Inside was the horrifying sight of a massive machine connected to tree roots and digging into the soil. It was pumping some sort of strange green slime into the ground. 

Becky pulled off her helmet. "Nikki was right, the Horde is poisoning Plumeria but also the rest of the Whispering Woods. How do we stop it?" She asked looking to Charlotte for her advice. 

Suddenly a door slammed open behind them. "What are you doing here?" A Horde soldier asked, pointing a taser baton at them. 

Charlotte swallowed hard and stepped forward to protect her friends. "What are we doing here, what do you think that you're doing here? We have top-level clearance from Hordak and Vickie, passcode Alpha-fifty-five. You don't want to piss off the mistress of the shadows do you?"

The other Horde soldier hesitantly lowered their stun gun. "N-no, I don't want to piss off Hordak, there's just one problem... we haven't used that passcode in months." Before Charlotte could even react, the soldier slammed a hand on an alarm button, triggering a loud siren. 

Bayley on the other hand didn't even hesitate, she fired a beam of energy from her hands, shooting the soldier and knocking them back through the door. "Well come on now, don't just stand there." 

"Crap, I wish I had my arrows," Becky whined, grabbing the stun baton from the fallen soldier. 

The trio ran, trying to avoid getting blasted by the Horde encampment, who were now converging on their location. They ducked behind a couple of crates, Bayley throwing beams of magical energy at anybody who got to close. 

"I am sorry I got us into this mess," Charlotte muttered, hating that she had put her friends into danger. "I really thought that would work." She flinched at the sound of the Horde's stun batons buzzing to life and she could hear them getting closer. But also distantly she could hear something that sounded like a war horn. "D-Do you hear that?" Charlotte hissed to Becky and Bayley. 

To their left, large green vines sprouted over the Horde's wall, busting a large hole right through it. Charlotte watched with a mixture of relief and awe as Princess Nikki came riding through on a massive vine the size of a tree trunk. 

"Plumerians together!" Nikki called as more of her people flooded through the hole to attack the horde soldiers with their makeshift weapons. 

Becky got to her feet and raised her stun gun. "For the Rebellion!" She cried, charging into battle to help them. 

Bayley charged forward as well, firing her magical beams. Now that things even, she felt like they stood a greater chance of kicking the Horde's butt. 

Pulling her sword from her back, Charlotte took a deep breath. "For the honor of Grayskull." She called, transforming back into She-Ra. She cut a path through the few soldiers still blocking the plant-killer machine, making her way back into the tent. Swinging the Sword of Power, Charlotte began to cut her way through the cables and wires, trying to dismantle the machine before it caused more damage.

"Whoa." Nikki froze as the machine was destroyed. Her power that had been getting sucked dry and diminished by the machine's attack on the Heartblossom returned in full force. The Princess of Plumeria slowly smiled and then let out an almost primal cry, as she threw her hands forward unleashing the full extent of her magic. 

All around the camp the Horde soldiers were swept up in vines and covered in thick flowers and roots. The Horde seemed to realize the battle was lost and began to retreat away from the magical plant lady and her crazy followers. 

Charlotte made her way out of the tent, impressed by the massive array of wildflowers that now blanketed the Horde's encampment. "You did it," Charlotte said, smiling at Nikki. 

Nikki ran to her and threw her arms around Charlotte's waist. "I found your letter that you left, saying you were still going to try and stop the Horde. You inspired me and my people, and we're so grateful. You really are the great She-Ra." 

Charlotte blushed and awkwardly patted the top of Nikki's head. "I am just glad I could help. Hopefully, the Horde stays away from Plumeria and your land can recover now." Charlotte mused. 

"I will do my best to rebuild the Whispering Woods," Nikki promised, giving Charlotte a meaningful glance. "Is there any way we can repay your kindness?"

"You can join the Princess Alliance and the Rebellion. We need all the help we can get." Bayley interjected as she joined the conversation. 

Nikki blinked and tilted her head to the side. "Didn't the Princess Alliance end disastrously the last time? Is that really such a good idea?" 

"We're all stronger together. If we want to have any chance at stopping the Horde, then we're going to need to work together." Becky pointed out, looking between the three Princesses. "Your magic is stronger when you fight together." 

"Would I get to hit more people with flowers and vines?" Nikki asked, looking excited by the prospect. 

Charlotte had to bite back a smile. "Yeah, I don't see why not." 

"Then you have a deal, I will join your Princess Alliance and the Rebellion," Nikki promised, she held out her hand to Charlotte who shook it. Nikki then turned to her people. "We are part of the Rebellion now, look at us go!"

\----

\- In the Fright Zone-

Sasha made her way into Vickie's quarters. She may not have liked the older woman, but for some unknown reason, she found herself caring at least a little bit. She was sure if Charlotte was still around, the blonde would have called the mother-daughter relationship toxic and unhealthy, but what did the blonde know anyway. 

"Force Captain Sasha, reporting for duty. I was told you asked for me specifically?" Sasha asked, wary of the mood that Vickie seemed to be in. 

"I was given footage by a retreating Horde soldier. Apparently they were attacked by a magical sword-wielding blonde." Vickie mused, sounding displeased by the information. "Did you really think that I wouldn't find out that Charlotte is the magical She-Ra?"

Despite all of her anger at Charlotte, Sasha didn't want to see her get the full brunt of Vickie's anger. "She's just being stupid, she'll get over it." Sasha mused, not even sure why she felt the need to protect Charlotte after the blonde abandoned her. "I will bring her back to us, I swear." 

Vickie turned on her quickly, the shadows swarming and encircling Sasha. "Oh yes, you will bring her back, because if you don't you won't like what happens Force Captain Sasha. You will bring her back and just to make sure your incompetence doesn't interfere, I will have my shadows track her." 

Sasha watched horror-struck as some of the shadows seemed to develop glowing red eyes, before fleeing the room to no doubt track down Charlotte. Sasha was angry at the blonde for even putting her in this situation, but also at herself for being weak and feeling the need to protect her. Once again she was being the buffer, taking the abuse from Vickie to cover for Charlotte who she doubted would do the same for her. Maybe she had always cared more than Charlotte did, she wouldn't have abandoned her if the roles were reversed. 

Sasha tried not to shiver as the shadows rushed past her, leaving her with a feeling of ice in her veins that she wasn't sure would ever go away. She just hoped that wherever Charlotte was, that she was safe and warm. 

\----

\- At Brightmoon -

Charlotte was exhausted after her debriefing with Queen Stephanie. The Queen of Brightmoon had been pissed and relieved that the trio had managed to defeat the Horde encampment and save Plumeria. Mad because it was supposed to be an aid mission, but pleased because they had added another member to the Rebellion and strengthened the alliance. 

Charlotte made her way into her room, to find Becky and Bayley laying out sleeping bags near her bed. "What are you doing?" She asked curiously. 

"Well we know you mentioned earlier that you weren't used to sleeping by yourself without other people around," Becky said, laying down on her sleeping bag. 

Bayley nodded. "We're throwing you a sleepover, to help you adjust." 

"You'd really do that for me?" Charlotte's lower lip trembled, but she managed to keep from crying. "You guys are the best friends a girl could have." She gave them a grateful smile before climbing into her bed. "I hope you both sleep well." 

"We even got you a new bed, it's more like a cot I guess." Becky shrugged her shoulders. 

"I love it, it's perfect." Charlotte sighed and cuddled into her spot, getting the first real good night of sleep she had since leaving the Horde.


	10. We're gonna need a sea captain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The best friend squad get their next task. Sasha gets a mission of her own and a new ally?

-Brightmoon Castle: The war room-

Charlotte had to admit that the war councils were starting to look a little bit more like an actual council and not just Bayley’s mom talking at them. Ever since the whole thing with Plumeria, Queen Stephanie seemed to have more faith in them. Charlotte was happy about that, she wanted to prove herself worthy. She was used to the more militaristic way of the Horde, so these meetings were becoming more familiar. 

“We are here today to discuss plans to strengthen our defenses against the Horde,” Queen Stephanie mused, sounding as regal as ever. “I am willing to entertain different strategies, who would like to go first?” She asked, willing to hear out the other members of the alliance. 

Bayley’s hand almost immediately shot up and began to wave back and forth. “Me! Pick me mom, me!!” She called excitedly. 

Queen Stephanie looked up to the ceiling and fixed her most professional smile onto her face. It was clear that she wanted to pick anybody other than her daughter, but she didn’t want to be rude. “Yes, Commander Bayley, what is your plan?” 

“Mom, I mean your majesty.” Bayley took a nervous breath. Charlotte wasn’t the only one who wanted to prove herself. “I think the next logical step would be to allow Charlotte, Becky, and I to continue recruiting other princesses into the Alliance. You have always told us that we are stronger together, and having more people on our side can only strengthen the Rebellion.” 

“You forget that the other princesses withdrew from the last alliance. They made a choice to protect their own lands.” Stephanie reminded, trying not to be too harsh with Bayley. She clearly appreciated her daughter’s optimism. 

“We’re just gonna give up, like that?” Bayley asked, she looked to her friends and then back to her mother. “Please, let us try. We might be able to make a difference. All I am proposing is a diplomatic mission to see where the other kingdom’s heads are at. If they don’t want to join us then we’re no worse off than when we started.” 

Stephanie just looked tired. She had been hearing Bayley’s plans for years and while she loved that her daughter was trying to help, sometimes Bayley’s ideas could be farfetched. “So what do you propose then?” 

Bayley’s whole face lit up. “I am glad you asked. Anybody trying to approach Brightmoon by sea has to pass through the Salineas Sea Gate. Princess Bianca has taken it over since her father retired. If we get her on our side, then the Rebellion could control the seas and that would be a massive advantage in our favor.” 

“That is a dangerous journey to even get to Salineas and you could run into the Horde or pirates. I am not sure if it is worth the risk.” Stephanie admitted. She didn’t want to needlessly put her daughter and her friends into danger. 

“Oh don’t worry mom, with She-Ra on our side, how could anything go wrong. We can conquer any task that comes our way, you don’t have to worry about it.” Bayley nudged Charlotte, who was forced to plaster what looked to be a semi-convincing smile. 

Queen Stephanie pinched the bridge of her nose. After their ‘humanitarian’ mission to Plumeria had turned into a battle, she wasn’t sure of anything. Trouble seemed to follow the three wherever they went. 

“If we do this, we’re also gonna need a boat. I am not sure I can swim that well. Even if I am in She-Ra form.” Charlotte piped up, wanting to throw that out there before Bayley got them too far into this. 

“Fine with She-Ra and a boat we can conquer anything.” Bayley mused, trying to still convince her mom. 

Becky cleared her throat. “I don’t think any of us know how to sail. We’re going to see an experienced captain to steer.” 

Bayley shot her friend an exasperated look. “With She-Ra, a boat, and a captain to steer the said boat, we can conquer anything.” 

Queen Stephanie had to hide her smile, she could see that her daughter was getting irritated. “Very well, you can go on this mission to try and recruit princess Bianca. Just please be safe.” 

“Yess!” Bayley teleported to her mom’s side and hugged her tightly. 

“You are going to need to be careful Bayley. No violence, no collateral damage. You got lucky in Plumeria, you might not get so lucky again.” Stephanie warned, listing her conditions for the trip. 

“I won’t let you down mom,” Bayley said flashing a big grin, squeezing her again, before grabbing a hold of Charlotte and Becky and teleporting away. 

Queen Stephanie matched her go and slowly shook her head. She already had a feeling she was going to regret it, but at least her daughter seemed happy, which was a nice change of pace. 

\-----

\- At a Tavern in Seaworthy-

Charlotte had to admit that there was a lot to Etheria that she hadn’t seen before. She had definitely never heard of taverns when she was in the Horde, but Bayley had been filling her in on what she was missing. Even Becky had pulled up some pictures on her tablet pad and was showing Charlotte the different pictures. 

As they actually entered the seaside tavern, Charlotte could already see a bunch of unsavory individuals, that looked rough around the edges. She hadn’t exactly realized how diverse the inhabitants of Etheria were. 

“This is so cool! I never imagined I would get to go to Seaworthy, to an actual tavern.” Becky was clearly overly excited. “Everyone here looks like an actual pirate!” 

“Focus Becky! We aren’t here to talk to the pirates, we need to find a captain who can get us through the Salineas Sea Gate and to Bianca.” Bayley reminded, giving her oldest friend a stern look. 

Charlotte gave the place a skeptical once over. “None of these people seem particularly qualified to sail a ship.” She murmured softly, trying to figure out who they could trust in the place. 

Bayley took that opportunity to walk over to the bar, cringing when she saw the rough-looking bartender lady. The woman had a massive skull tattoo on her shoulder, pierced though with an anchor. Bayley clutched the edge of the bar trying to steady herself, she was supposed to be a tough commander, now was not the time to show any weakness. 

"Excuse me, we are trying to find a sea captain who would be willing to take us to Salineas," Bayley announced, trying to get the bar tender's attention. 

The bartender just let out a gruff sort of grunt and pointed a long bony figure towards the back corner booth, but otherwise said nothing. Bayley awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck and gave a small nod of thanks, before turning to her friends. The trio made their way to the corner booth, to find a dark-haired man, wearing a sort of headband and long coat. 

"Hi, we were told you're a sea captain?" Bayley asked, hoping to god that this guy would be friendlier than the bartender, but she wasn't exactly holding her breathe. 

"I am the one and only Seth Rollins, master of the seas and singer of shanties. Some of my faithful followers call me Seahawk!" Seth jumped to his feet on the seat and struck a majestic pose, with his foot on the table. 

Becky slowly raised a brow and looked amused. "They call you Seahawk? Interesting, I think we'll be calling you Seth." 

"Captain Seth, we're interviewing potential sea captains to take us through the Sea Gate to Salineas." Bayley began cutting straight to the chase. If anything she was determined to make this work, although she could feel the tension radiating off of Charlotte who hadn't let her guard down since entering the establishment. 

"Would you like to apply for the position?" Charlotte asked, her eyes narrowing as she studied the supposed sea captain.

Seth let out a loud laugh, smugly grinning down at them. "Apply for the position? Did you miss the part where I mentioned that I am the one and only Seth Rollins? I am the master of the seas and singer of shanties." 

"Just because Sea Hawk is your nickname, doesn't mean you're qualified to do this." Charlotte protested, clearly miffed by his arrogance. 

Becky's eyes widened and she decided to intervene. "What my friend means, is that we want to know about your qualifications." 

"Qualifications? I once ran the 50-click Galebreath Gauntlet in less than 20-clicks. I maneuvered the Serpentine with nary a chip in the paint of my bow. My shanties are so lovely that the Sirens of the deep fling themselves into the sea at the sound of them." Seth was equally miffed that the group hadn't heard of him and were questioning his capabilities. "And because I know you're wondering, yes my beard is real." 

Becky swallowed hard. "It looks so soft, you're hired!"

Bayley's jaw dropped and she elbowed Becky hard in the gut. "No, he isn't!"

Seth chuckled and sat down leaning back in his chair. "What makes you think that you could even afford a sea captain like me?"

Bayley studied him. “What if we told you that money was no problem?” 

An amused smile made its home on Seth’s face. He pulled a business card out of his pocket and held it out to her. “Here is my fee.” 

Bayley studied the scribbled number on the card and shook her head. “Apparently money might be a problem. You know what, we’ll find another sea captain. Thank you for your time.” She said standing up and gesturing for Charlotte and Becky to follow her. 

She hadn’t expected Seth to charge that much. There was no way her mother was willing to foot the bill for that, it would bankrupt what Brightmoon and the rest of the rebellion had in the treasury.

“Good luck finding another captain stupid enough to try and sail you to Salineas. Nobody knows that treacherous route as well as I do.” Seth called after them, folding his hands behind his head. “I brave it often, to visit my close, personal friend Princess Bianca.” 

Charlotte’s eyes widened. “Wait a second you know Princess Bianca?” She asked skeptically. 

“I sure do,” Seth replied. 

“Okay, listen here. I am challenging you to an arm-wrestling contest, I saw you wiping the floor with the other bar patrons. If I win, you help us for free. If you win, we leave you alone,” Charlotte offered, taking the seat that Bayley had vacated and held up her hand to arm wrestle with him. 

“That is a horrible deal, but I am undefeated at arm wrestling and I, the great Seth Rollins, master of the seas, never backs down from a challenge.” Seth mused, consenting to the contest. 

"Come on Charlotte, show him who is boss!" Becky cheered, trying to will her friend on to win. 

Bayley merely rolled her eyes. "This is so freaking dumb." She muttered, shaking her head. She hoped that Charlotte would win, but she wasn't sure how this settled anything. 

Seth and Charlotte were both trying to slam the other's hand down to the tabletop. Both of them were letting out undignified noises, as they strained to prove that they were stronger. Seth wasn't about to refrain from boasting or trash-talking, because he wanted to get into Charlotte's head. 

"Is that the best you can do? I have beaten men and monsters thrice my size." Seth said, giving her a little wink. "There is no shame in admitting that I am better." 

Charlotte growled and using all of her strength managed to slam his hand down onto the table with a resounding thud. "I win." She said, dusting off her hand and giving him a wink of her own. It was hard not to be a little smug with how much he had been boasting about being better. 

"Well, truth be told, I let you win. I wanted to boost your confidence before you go see Princess Bianca. She's been known to have a sharp tongue and I wanted you to be prepared." Seth mumbled, his cheeks heating up. He couldn't believe that some girl had beaten him. "I have been wanting to go to Salineas anyways, so with me, forward!" He called, vaulting over the table and leading the way to his ship. 

None of them seemed to notice the weird shadows with eyes that lingered in the corner of the booth. 

\---  
-Back in the Fright Zone-

"It seems that Charlotte is in Sea Worthy and is going to Salineas. This should be interesting." Vickie said, stirring her finger through the water she was watching. Her shadow spies had been doing what she had instructed and spying on Charlotte and her little friends. Vickie turned to look at Sasha who was petulantly glaring down at the floor. "I am giving you one last chance to bring her back." 

“Didn’t Hordak literally just order you not to go after Charlotte. I am pretty sure he said to stop chasing after her, and wasting resources looking for a Force Captain that doesn’t want to be found.” Sasha argued. She knew questioning Vickie was dangerous, even more so, when she was in a bad mood.

Vickie spun to fully face Sasha, glaring into her eyes. “And who is going to tell him? Are you going to rat me out to Lord Hordak?” She asked, baring her teeth at Sasha, challenging the younger woman to keep going. 

“Of course not, but if this blows up in your face don’t blame me. It’s about time you start treating me as an equal.” Sasha muttered, folding her arm across her chest. 

Vickie snorted and rolled her eyes. “We are not equals, Sasha, no matter how many Force Captain pins you get.” She snapped angrily, not at all scared at putting Sasha back into her place. She didn’t know why Hordak was soft on Sasha but she didn’t care. 

Sasha could only stare defiantly up into the woman’s eyes, trying not to flinch. “Fine, I’ll bring her back.” 

“Not so fast, you won’t be going alone. I can’t afford another screw-up, so you will be going with Force Captain Sarah Logan.” Vickie said as a large warrior of a woman walked out from the shadows. 

Sasha had heard of Sarah before, but she had never really had the chance to interact with her. Sasha turned to eye Sarah, only to be dragged into a big hug. Sasha growled, squirming to get away. 

“It’s nice to meet you, I’m a hugger,” Sarah said squeezing her tightly, before promptly dropping as Sasha scratched her hard across the face. 

“Listen here Logan, I am just going to call you that. We aren’t friends and I am not a hugger.” Sasha snapped, pointing a finger into the taller woman’s face. 

Logan went crossed eyed and then glared down at Sasha. “No need to be all bristly kitty-cat.” She muttered, pushing Sasha’s hand away from her face. She rubbed her cheek that Sasha had scratched and then offered a warm smile, evidently not deterred by Sasha’s cold reaction.

Turning her attention back to Vickie, Sasha raised a brow. “This has to be some kind of a joke. You expect her to be able to help me track down Charlotte?”

Vickie nodded just once. “I expect her to keep you in line. I trust Force Captain Logan. Mind your manners, Sasha.” Vickie reprimanded.

Sasha scoffed and had to fight to keep from rolling her eyes. “Are you at least giving me a hovercraft or a vehicle?” 

A sinister smile crossed Vickie’s face. “Something like that.” 

\- A little while later- 

Sasha felt like she was going to be sick, she did not like boats and yet somehow she found herself on one. She knew that Vickie had to be screwing with her, how else would the vile woman know that Sasha hated boats and the water. 

“You have got to be kidding me,” Sasha grumbled in disgust

Logan flashed a wide smile at her and nudged her. “Don’t you just love boats?” 

Sasha glared at her, gripping the side of the boat so tightly her knuckles turned white. “I hate them and I hate this!” 

“I love the water, no dry land in sight, where even the slightest hiccup could leave us stranded.” Sarah mused, leaning out over the side of the boat to brush her hand through the water. 

“I am really going to need you to shut up, Logan.” Sasha slowly lowered herself into a sitting position so that she didn’t have to see the water. She felt like she was going vomit at any moment.

“Are you feeling seasick? I can hold you.” Sarah offered, opening her arms, trying to pick up Sasha, and hold her.

Sasha pressed her palm to Sarah’s chest and pushed her back. “Please no. Don’t touch me, don’t even think about it.” 

"Just focus on me, it'll help." Sarah insisted, not understanding why Sasha was being so harsh.

"I swear to God, if you touch me I will gut you in your sleep Logan," Sasha growled, snarling angrily. She wasn't above gutting the other force captain if she had to, Vickie wasn't likely to believe her, but she'd just say it was an accident or that it Charlotte's fault.

Sarah stopped pursuing her and glanced past Sasha to the woman's squadron. Finn, Naomi, Dana, and AJ were staring at the two of them with looks of confusion. Sasha followed her gaze and scowled at the group. 

"Get back to work doing boat things, there is nothing to see here." Sasha hissed, grinning when the group immediately began to comply At the very least she could count on the fact that they would listen to her. She hadn't forgotten Naomi's defiance before, she was the only real threat. If worse came to worse, she'd use Naomi and Sarah to get rid of each other. If Charlotte's betrayal had taught her anything, it was to be prepared for the worst.


	11. Sea Shanties and grumpy princesses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are not what they seem in Salineas.

Charlotte had to admit that being on a boat felt weird. The Horde had of course offered some basic training on different methods of fighting, but she had never been particularly fond of fighting on ships. At the very least both Becky and Bayley seemed to be having a good time, and Charlotte couldn’t find it in herself to harsh their happy moods. 

“Welcome aboard the Dragon’s Daughter three.” Seth boasted proudly, he seemed to be intentionally trying to strike what he thought was a heroic pose. 

That caused the blonde former soldier to scoff. “What happened to Dragon’s Daughter one and two?” Charlotte asked, raising a brow. 

Seth sighed dramatically and clutched his heart as if pained by the memory. “They were tragically lost in a fire. Oh, how cruel the flames were, to take my loves from me.” 

Becky leaned forward, hanging off of Seth’s every word. “How did that happen, how did they catch on fire?”

Seth looked her dead in the eyes, his own watering. “Because I set them on fire.” 

If Charlotte wasn’t skeptical of the sea captain before, she was now. She couldn’t believe he had set his own ships on fire. She shifted her attention to Bayley and Becky. “Are we sure about this guy, he seems like a crazy person?” 

Bayley frowned a bit, she had to concede that Seth did seem a little eccentric. “We just need him to get us to Salineas and then we can ditch him,” Bayley whispered, she also seemed fairly skeptical about the captain’s intentions. 

“I do expect you three to earn your keep by helping out on the ship. This is not a free ride after all.” Seth said, turning to look at them. “Have no fear, I will teach you all you need to know about sailing-” 

It was at that particular moment that he noticed Becky was in the middle of securing some rigging and tightening the sails. Seth blinked in surprise and quickly strode over, to inspect her work. 

“What are you doing?” Seth questioned, surprised at how intricate the knots were. 

Becky shrugged her shoulders. “I noticed that some of your rigs weren’t tied correctly, and I was just trying to make sure your sail was tied correctly.”

Seth looked as though he was about to break down into tears. “These knots are the most beautiful I have ever seen. It normally takes an experienced sailor, many years to properly tie a good knot.” 

Becky beamed at the praise. “Well, I like to be useful.” She said brightly. It was sometimes hard living in Bayley's shadow when the other woman had magic and could teleport everywhere.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and looked to Bayley. “If I have to continue to listen to them flirt, I am going to toss myself overboard.” She muttered in disgust. She hoped they were getting closer to Princess Bianca’s territory, she wasn’t sure how much longer she could stand to be on the ship. 

“We need somebody to be the lookout and keep an eye out for trouble, come on Sparkles, that’s your job,” Seth said, placing a heavy hand on Bayley’s shoulder. 

Bayley scowled and knocked his hand off her shoulder. “Please don’t touch me and the name is Bayley.” She muttered, before teleporting to the crow’s nest, so she could keep an eye on things. 

Charlotte stood up to her feet. “I unfurled the jib already, do you don't have to worry about that.” 

“By yourself?” Seth asked, seeming surprised. “I can’t even do that by myself, I think you are trying to pull the wool over my eyes.” He was full-on pouting at Charlotte now. He felt highly suspicious of them now. 

Charlotte smiled smugly at him. “So what you’re trying to tell me, is that I am better at sailing than you are?” She asked, barely suppressing the fact that she was amused. 

Seth’s jaw dropped slightly and he folded his arms over his chest. “You all are more qualified than you led me to believe. Perhaps overqualified.” He muttered. He awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “What do you even need me for?” 

Bayley poofed back down to the deck of the ship. “We need you for your map actually. It’s going to help us get through the Sea Gate and to Salineas.” She waited until the sulky ship captain handed it over, before teleporting to her original location up in the Crow’s nest. “We need to stay focused on our mission.” 

“Of course, if Queen Stephanie needs you all to get to Salineas safely, then trust me. It’s my top priority. I am sure that Princess Bianca will be happy to see me.” Seth sounded more like he was trying to convince himself at the moment. 

The pirate captain took a deep breath and then he began to sing. "I am Seth Rollins, I am, I am. If you're looking for adventure then I am you man. If you want to ride on the waves of the deepest blue, through perilous winds, then I got you."

Charlotte covered her ears, glaring at him. "Please stop singing, right now is not the time for Shanties." 

"There is always time for a song." Seth protested. "It's my ship, I should sing if I want too." 

"Stop arguing you two, something is wrong!" Bayley called from her lookout position. 

In the distance, there was a lot of wreckage on the horizon. Different ships were splintered and broken apart, a lot of them were already starting to sink. Bayley narrowed her gaze, trying to see if she could spot any survivors or bodies even, but she didn't see anything.

Bayley let out a weary sigh, glancing between the map and the worrisome sight in front of her."According to the map, we're way off course." She shifted her attention down to the deck, where Charlotte and Seth were once-more engaged in trying to arm wrestle each other. "Enough! I spotted a ship graveyard in the distance, and I think that is far more important than some stupid competition"

"I am sure it was nothing," Becky said, placing a hand on Bayley's shoulder to comfort her. 

"Yeah, it's probably just you seeing things. Have you drank enough water, staying hydrated is important when you're on the seas." Seth pointed out. 

Right as the captain finished speaking, something large collided with the side of the boat rocking it a little bit. Bayley's eyes widened and she shrugged Becky's hand off her shoulder. 

"What was that then? That sure seemed like something." Bayley pointed out, her voice quaking a little bit. 

"Ah! We're here, it must be the serpent of the sea. I knew he'd be in these waters." Seth said, getting to his feet as the boat was once more slammed into. 

Along the side of the boat, a large sea creature began to surface, slamming into the side of the ship for the third time. It looked like a mix between a squid and a sea dragon, with a large mouth and huge tentacles.

Charlotte was furious now. "You brought us here on purpose?" 

"Of course, every good sailing adventure needs to have a tale for you to tell your friends. I provide those exotic stories." Seth stated. He drew his rapier. "Onward to Adventure!"

Charlotte rolled her eyes, drawing her own sword. "For the honor of Grayskull!" She called, transforming into her She-Ra form. She took off running and ran towards the sea monster, leaping off the side of the deck and straight into its mouth, jabbing her sword into its throat.

"Well, that escalated quickly," Seth muttered, frowning a little bit. "Does she always do that?" 

Becky nodded slowly. "Yeah, pretty much." 

Bayley watched as Charlotte began doing battle with the sea creature, before turning to glare at Seth. "Let me get this straight. We asked you to take us to Salineas, and you instead sailed us straight towards a sea monster? Why would you do that?" 

"I was going to show off and prove to you how brave I am. At least that was my plan until your blonde giant friend stole my thunder." Seth explained, he shook his head in disgust. "Why is she so good at everything?"

"Are you kidding me? We're trying to save Etheria, and all you care about is showing off?" Bayley punched him hard in the arm and just scowled. She couldn't believe the nerve of the Sea Captain. They had important things to do, and he was wasting their time. 

Seth looked offended. "Well, I wanted to impress you!"

Bayley scoffed and shifted her attention to Charlotte who had just defeated the sea monster. "Charlotte, please get back in the boat, we're leaving. I have half a mind to leave this idiot behind." 

Becky bit the inside of her cheek, looking between Seth who was scandalized, and Bayley who was rightfully angry. "You wouldn't really leave him would you?"

"If he doesn't shut up and get us to Salineas, I just might," Bayley replied darkly, before extending a hand and helping Charlotte back up onto the ship. 

\-----

\- On the Horde ship with Sasha and Sarah -

Sasha was starting to get irritated, but that wasn't that unusual. What was bothering her at the moment, was that the ship had stopped moving. She just wanted to get this take over of Salineas over with, but that wasn't going to happen until they captured it. 

"Why have we stopped Finn?" She snapped, startling the poor cadet who nearly dropped his sea glass. 

"Well, we're being blocked by the Sea Gate." Finn stammered back in reply. "There is no way past Force Captain Sasha."

Sasha grumbled a complaint under her breath. Being on the ship had done little to improve her mood. "What do you mean, there is no way past?" She lept down smoothly from her position on the top deck and stole his telescope. She began to look through the sea glass, trying to figure out what was blocking her path. 

Finn hadn't been wrong, in the distance stood the Sea Gate. A large shimmering force field spanned the distance between two large mermaid statues with touching tridents. Around the rest of the city of Salineas was large walls, that seemed almost unreachable.

"Great! Of course, Vickie hadn't mentioned that there was a giant gate defending the city. I feel like she consistently sets me up for failure." Sasha clenched her fist, trying to reign in her temper. 

"You didn't learn about the Salineas Sea Gate in Force Captain Orientation?" Sarah asked as she came up behind Sasha. 

"There is a Force Captain orientation?" Sasha questioned in shock. Of course, Vickie was doing this on purpose. She was trying to set her up to fail. 

"Mhm, there's always been an orientation. How else are you supposed to learn about the enemy?" The larger woman let out a nervous chuckle. "I am sure it was just an oversight." 

Sasha was not about to allow herself to get defeated. "Alright, everybody I need you to fall in. We're going to find a way to get through that Sea Gate." She called, deciding to try and rally her Horde troops. 

It didn’t matter what Vickie tried to do, Sasha was determined to find a way to succeed. She felt this need to prove herself still. As hard and disaffected as she tried to act, there was a piece of Sasha that longed to belong. 

Sarah's face lit up at Sasha's words. "Ohh, impressive speech Captain. I'm right beside you." 

Sasha was surprised by the praise but quickly shrugged it off. "I can give a motivational speech if I want to." She snapped, though it did feel good to get some recognition.

\----

\- Back aboard the Dragon's Daughter -

Becky let out a soft grunt as she jumped down from the boat and began tying the ropes to the dock, to keep the ship from drifting off. "I don't know what I was expecting Salineas to look like, but this wasn't it." 

It looked like the whole city was empty, there were towers and spires, and there wasn't even anybody manning the docks or the security wall near the sea gate. 

"Something is indeed off, I have never seen Seaworthy or Salineas like this. I think something is amiss." Seth said, hopping off the boat as well. 

Charlotte and Bayley followed suit, exchanging wary glances as they began to look around for any of the citizens of the ocean kingdom. 

Suddenly in the distance behind the wall, a figure started running towards them. "Halt! Stay right where you are." The figure yelled, closing the space. As the figure got closer, it was clearly a man. He was armed with a trident, and completely out of breath from having run so far. 

"State your business, what are you doing in Salineas?" The stranger demanded. 

"We have come to speak with Princess Bianca. I'm Princess Bayley of Brightmoon." Bayley said, stepping forward with her hands out to show that she meant no harm. 

"Tell princess Bianca that Seth Rollins is here. I am sure she will want to see us." Seth boasted proudly. 

The Salineas soldier rolled his eyes. "Right away." He mumbled, clearly familiar with Seth. The soldier then led the way into the castle, carefully escorting them to the throne room. 

Seated on a golden throne shaped to look like a wave, Princess Bianca sat looking bored. Her long hair was intricately braided and wrapped around her torso. She was dressed in a royal shade of blue, her regal trident hanging loosely from her hand. The second she spotted Seth however, her expression darkened. 

"Ew, who let him back in here?" The Sea Princess asked, utterly disgusted. 

Seth gave a low bow. "Princess, I have returned to your side, back to my rightful place. I have dreamed of your lovely face, day and night since we parted." 

Bianca raised a brow dismissively. "Who are you again?" 

Bayley watched the interaction and frowned. Clearly, Seth hadn't been truthful when he talked about his close relationship with the Princess of Salineas. "Forgive me, I am Princess Bayley of Brightmoon. This is my sworn sword Becky Lynch, and this is Charlotte. She is the She-Ra, princess of Power." Bayley said in way of introduction. 

She stepped forward and gave a low bow as well, trying to be respectful and gain Bianca's favor. "You and I have never met, but our parents fought together in the Rebellion." 

"Oh right, I think I heard about that," Bianca replied, she let out a heavy sigh and leaned back in her throne. "What can I do for you, Princess Bayley? My dad mentioned that the old Princess Alliance was a total bust and failure."

"I didn't think it was possible, but your beauty grows every day," Seth said, interrupting. 

Bianca blinked a couple of times, unsure of what to make of Seth. "Will you please leave me alone? I am trying to talk to my new friend Barbara." 

"It's Bayley, my name is Bayley." Taking a deep breath to compose herself, Bayley decided to try again. 

"Right, Bayley. Montez, can you please bring my new guests some food. I would hate to be a rude hostess, and it appears they've had a long journey." Bianca stood to her feet, waiting for the soldier from earlier to do as she requested. 

"Wait for a second, your guard is also your butler? How does that work?" Charlotte asked, noting that aside from Montez, and a handful of other guards, there didn't seem to be any people in the vicinity to protect the Princess. 

"Everybody is fleeing Salineas because the Sea Gate is falling. I don't blame them, but my power is tied to the throne, so I can't leave. You'll have to forgive me for being a little understaffed." Bianca explained matter of factly. 

"What?" Bayley, Charlotte, and Becky all exclaimed at the same time. 

Bianca sighed again and waved them off. "I know right? It figures I would inherit a kingdom that's already crumbling. I'll probably be the one that gets blamed for this in the history books. It's just annoying to me because the Horde won't stop attacking us."

"Why is the gate falling apart, has it ever done that before?" Bayley asked, hurrying over to the window to see just how bad of shape the Sea Gate was in. 

"Who knows, but it's getting weaker every day. I can only do so much to defend my people." Bianca tightened her grip on her trident. "If the Horde attacks us again, we're pretty much dead." 

"The Horde is why we're here. We want to help you!" Bayley wasn't about to stand by and see another kingdom fall. "We want to rebuild the Princess Alliance, none of us stand a chance against the Horde on our own." 

Charlotte nodded and stepped forward. "We'll do whatever we can to stop the Sea Gate from falling. We are stronger together!"

"Why would I help Brightmoon, it's not like they've ever done anything for Salineas in the past." Bianca wasn't convinced that they could help her now, even if they did talk a big game.

"Bianca, if I may-" Seth started to say, only to get cut off by the princess. 

"Seriously why are you here?" Bianca asked, glaring at him. "You are so annoying, I thought I told you not to come back." 

"He said you two were friends." Becky was confused by the cold way Bianca was treating Seth. 

"We are not friends." Bianca snorted in contempt. "He got us kicked out of a party, and set our gondola on fire, in the middle of the tunnel of love." 

Seth paled a little bit. "In my defense, our relationship is a little complicated." 

"What relationship, there is no relationship. You lost out on a strong, independent princess." Bianca muttered, before noticing that Charlotte was over by the corner, reading some sort of inscription. "What is she doing?" 

Charlotte turned to look at her. "This is First One's writing, it's about the gate. I may know how to save us." 

That caught Bayley's attention. "What does it say?" 

"The gate, it's failing because it's losing its connection to its power source. It gets its power from the Salienan Runestone. If we can protect that, we might be able to save the city." Charlotte looked at her friends and then to Princess Bianca. "What do you say? If I can fix your gate, will you consider joining the Alliance?" 

Bianca groaned, rolling her eyes skyward. "Ugh, fine if you can save the gate and protect Salineas. I'll join your stupid alliance, but you better hurry. I think the Horde is here." Bianca said, gesturing out the window and towards the horizon as Horde ships began to dot the horizon line.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so some new stuff has come up, I got a new job and other family issues. But I thought I could drop off an update.


	12. battle for the sea gate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle for the sea gate

Getting back out to the coastline of Salineas from Bianca’s castle was a little difficult. Only made more so by the fact that the Princess seemed irritated that Horde ships were once again attacking her kingdom. 

“Are you sure about this?” Bianca asked, still sounding bored and irritated. 

Charlotte gritted her teeth in frustration at the situation. “Well, we don’t want the Horde to see us coming now do we?” She asked. 

Bianca sighed and shrugged. “No, I guess we don’t. I just really hope you know what you’re doing.”

“We’re doing the best we can,” Becky said, trying to keep the peace. 

Bayley was unusually quiet, more focused on trying to descend carefully down to the beach. She held up a hand to signal the group to stop. “I think I see some ships right outside the barrier of the Sea Gate.” She whispered. 

Charlotte grabbed the sword off of her back and took a deep breath, before holding it aloft. “For the honor of Grayskull.” She called, transforming into She-Ra. 

Bianca seemed stunned by the transformation, quite the change from her act of indifference. “Whoa, okay that’s not what I was expecting.” She mumbled, watching as Charlotte grew in size. 

“It’s pretty cool huh,” Becky said, her eyes sparkling with mischief and excitement. “I was surprised the first time I saw it happen in person too.” 

Charlotte ignored them and pointed her sword at the Sea Gate. She wasn’t sure if she could strengthen it with her powers, but she was going to try. She closed her eyes and tried to focus her energy, visualizing the energy leaving the blade and reaching out to the Sea Gate portal. 

“Is it working?” Becky asked after a moment. 

“It was,” Charlotte grumbled, as Becky’s interruption had caused her to lose her concentration. “Don’t distract me, Becky, it’s harder than it looks.” She chided. She pointed her sword once more at the Sea Gate, and this time it seemed to do the trick. 

Energy shot forth from Charlotte’s sword, hitting the middle of the Gate’s portal. Very slowly it looked like the magic from Charlotte’s weapon was beginning to repair it. 

Bayley watched and then lightly nudged Bianca. “You might as well get comfortable. It looks like we’re going to be here for a bit.” She squinted as she noticed in the distance on the other side of the Sea Gate, Seth was reboarding his ship and looked like he was going to take off. 

Focusing her own energy, Bayley teleported to the deck of Seth’s ship, earning a startled yelp from the sailor. “Where are you going?” 

Seth clutched at his chest, trying to soothe his rapidly beating heart. He hadn’t expected Bayley to startle him like that. “I would really appreciate it if you would stop teleporting behind me. It freaks me out when you do that, nobody likes to be snuck upon.”

Bayley arched a brow, before noting that he seemed to be trying to set off. “Wait for just a second, are you trying to leave without us?” 

“It’s for the best, Princess Bianca doesn’t want me here,” Seth muttered dejectedly. He clearly hadn’t forgotten that Bianca had told him to go away. Quite frankly it had hurt his feelings. “It’s time for me to go be where I belong, and that’s by myself. You don’t need me.” 

“You don’t have to go,” Bayley said, placing a hand on his shoulder. 

“Nobody takes me seriously here. Where I am from, I was considered charming, I had friends. Ever since I’ve been in Etheria, it’s like I don’t fit in.” Seth replied, before shrugging. He wasn’t trying to get pity from her. He just thought that things would have been different, but Bianca didn’t even seem to care about him.

“I know a thing or two about not being taken seriously. It sucks always trying to prove yourself.” Bayley said, empathizing with the sailor. 

“But you’re a princess and a war general, don’t they have to take you seriously?” Seth questioned, his gaze searching. 

“All they see me as is Queen Stephanie’s daughter. My mom doesn’t even think I am capable of winning any battles, all I am good for is ‘diplomatic missions’.” Bayley sighed dejectedly. She was starting to think that perhaps she had misjudged Seth a little bit. Maybe they had more in common than she had originally thought. They were both trying to prove themselves after all. 

“Besides Seth, you try being the child of an immortal queen, when all you can do is throw sparkles and teleport.” Bayley turned to look at him and squeezed his shoulder. “There has to be more out there you know?” 

Seth nodded in agreement. “We’ve only just met, but I can tell you’re brave Bayley. You have a lot of heart and I think you’re worth taking seriously.” 

Bayley gave a tiny smile. “You have a lot of heart to Seth, and you do have friends. I know we were a little tough on you earlier, but we do care about you. You’re our captain and for as long as you’re willing to help us, we’re your crew.” Bayley gave him a side-arm hug and then stepped back. “So don’t go yet?” 

“Okay, I’ll stay for a little longer,” Seth promised, not wanting to disappoint her or their friends. 

Back up by Charlotte, Becky was trying to keep a lookout, as the blonde attempted to open the Sea Gate. Becky could see Bayley talking to Seth, but paying attention to them had distracted her from keeping a close watchful eye on the other side of the Sea Gate. She almost missed the fact that some of the Horde ships had found their way around to the other side of the portal. The ships that Bianca had mentioned earlier had managed to find their way around the kingdom’s defenses. 

“Um Charlotte, I think it might be too late for the portal,” Becky whispered in a hushed tone, impatiently tapping at her friend’s shoulder. 

Charlotte’s eyes widened and she lowered her sword. “Warn, Bayley, and Seth.” She commanded, shifting her attention to the Horde ships that were now approaching the beach. 

Becky nodded and started running towards the beach to give her friends some warning. “Guys turn around! The Horde is coming, they’re right behind you.” Becky yelled, muttering under her breath. 

On the Horde ship, Sasha was beaming at the moment. “Fire the weapons!” She commanded. 

“With pleasure, captain,” Sarah replied, firing one of the laser cannons right at the Sea Gate’s defensive portal. A green beam of energy blasted from the Horde’s ship, tearing a hole in the Sea Gate’s wall. 

Sasha could now see that Charlotte was there, trying to protect Salineas. The Force Captain’s smile disappeared abruptly. “Fire again Sarah.” 

Sarah raised a brow and nodded, quickly obeying the other woman’s command. She fired again at the Sea Gate, chipping away at the defenses. 

Charlotte frowned as she watched the Sea Gate begin to crumble. “Come on, we have to do something.” She said, glancing at Bianca, hoping the other Princess might have an idea. “I’ll try and repair the gate, but I need you all to keep them busy.” 

Bianca groaned as if the suggestion was more of an inconvenience than anything else. “Fine, I’ll do it.” She made for the water, easily outpacing Becky and Bayley. The second her body hit the water, she shape-shifted into a mermaid. 

“I didn’t know she could do that,” Seth whispered, watching awestruck as Bianca began rapidly swimming towards the Horde’s ships. 

“Me either, but let’s hope she can stop them,” Bayley said, trying to help Becky and Seth get their own ship out to sea so they could fight the Horde. 

Becky waited until their ship got close enough, before firing one of her arrows. She then used it as a sort of zip line to get from their ship to the Horde. She landed on the deck with a flourish and began firing arrows at Sasha’s battalion of soldiers. 

Sasha glared at the intruders, narrowly avoiding being impaled by one of Becky’s arrows. “Get off my ship!” She yelled, running at Becky, only for Bayley to teleport in at the last moment and grab Becky, before teleporting out of Sasha’s line of sight. 

“I got you, you’re safe!” Bayley promised, giving Becky a reassuring smile. 

“Think again princess,” Naomi called, slamming into Bayley from behind and knocking her to the deck of the ship. 

Becky frowned and tried to notch another air, but Naomi was quicker. She lashed out with her stun baton, swiping it at Becky’s bow. Becky’s arrow ended up flying off course and hitting the motor of the Horde’s boat. 

“Hey watch where you’re shooting that thing.” Sasha snapped, irritated that her plan was being foiled by Charlotte’s stupid friends. She glanced at Sarah. “Handle these fools and get them off my ship, right now!” She demanded. She had spotted something on the beach's cliff's: Charlotte in her She-Ra form.

Seth took that moment to try and ram his ship into the side of Sasha’s. “For Salineas and adventure!” He called, over the crashing sound. 

Sarah gave a snappy salute, grunting at the impact of the ships colliding. “You got it, Sasha.” She launched herself at Becky, grabbing her by the collar and pulling her away from Naomi. “Time to say goodbye.” She said trying to throw Becky off the ship. 

Becky went careening off the side of the ship, her eyes widening in horror. But before she hit the water, the waves seemed to rush up to greet her, catching her gently. 

“I’m not dead?!” Becky exclaimed in utter surprise. 

Bianca grunted as she tried to control the wave that was now carrying Becky. She set the archer down on the deck of Seth’s ship. “You’re not allowed to die on my watch. That would not be good for future tourism.” Bianca muttered. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Becky said, clutching to Bianca’s muscular frame. 

“Please don’t touch me,” Bianca said, forcefully shoving Becky off of her. “But you’re welcome.” 

"How are we going to stop them, there is too many," Seth said, doing his best to steer. 

"I have an idea, but my mom is so going to kill me if she finds out," Bayley replied. The wheels in her mind had been turning for quite some time now. "Seth I need you to do what you do best." 

Seth raised a brow a that. "Which is what?"

A wicked smile tugged at Bayley's lips. "You're going to set your ship on fire." 

Seth began to laugh maniacally. "Yes! Time to burn it down!"

Back up on the sea cliff edge, Charlotte was doing her best to hold the sword steady and aloft. She was trying to hold the Sea Gate steady and repair it, but down on Sasha's ship, Noami and AJ kept firing blasts of energy at it. 

"I have to admit that seeing you up close and personal, your outfit looks even stupider. Who gave you that tiara?" Sasha called from behind Charlotte She had used the distraction of the fighting to make her way up along the beach. Sasha was ready to get rid of Charlotte once and for all. 

"Sasha? How did you find me?" Charlotte asked, her voice trembling. She hadn't expected to see her again so soon. 

Sasha rolled her eyes and let out a pained groan. "Did you really think you'd be able to get away from the Horde that easily? I always knew you were empty-headed but this is a new low Charlie." Sasha mocked her.

Charlotte gritted her teeth. "Is this your elaborate plan? Insult and demean me until I rejoin the Horde?" 

"Honestly I don't think Vickie plans on giving you much of a choice. You're either with us or against us, and those who are against us die. You should know that by now Charlotte." Sasha reminded. Freedom of choice and thinking hadn't been encouraged in their cadet days. 

Sasha watched as Charlotte tried to ignore her, still focusing on trying to patch the gate. For some reason, this just pissed Sasha off even more. "You know with you gone, I'm finally excelling. I got your promotion." Sasha mused, running a finger along Charlotte's jawline. 

For a brief moment, Charlotte's eyes flickered from the sword and Sea Gate towards Sasha and then back again. "Congratulations, I am glad you finally found where you fit Sasha." 

"It seems like only yesterday this was all you wanted, and now you don't even care? What happened to you?" Sasha questioned, her facade slipping for just a moment. She had been trying to get under Charlotte's skin, but it seemed the opposite was happening. She couldn't comprehend why Charlotte had turned her back on the Horde... on her. 

"I told you before Sash, I am not going back there. I don't want anything to do with the Horde." Charlotte said firmly, ignoring the hurt look in Sasha's eyes. 

Sasha recoiled and then abruptly struck out, slashing Charlotte across the face with her fingernails. She then followed it up with a swift kick to the gut, that dropped Charlotte to a knee. Sasha grabbed Charlotte by the hair and roughly yanked her hair back, grabbing her chin. 

"You left me to play dress up and for a fancy light show? Really Charlotte, really? Your new best friends are nowhere to be seen, they have left you just like you left me." Sasha growled, her voice shaking with each and every word. The betrayal was evident in her voice and she sounded hysterical. 

Sasha was about to hit her again, when a blast of cold icy water, knocked Sasha away from Charlotte and sent her falling away. Bianca used her waterpowers to lift her and Becky back up onto the rocky cliff near Charlotte. 

"I got you," Becky said, helping the shaken Charlotte to her feet, and taking up a protective stance. 

"We've got you." Bianca corrected. 

"Thank you for saving me," Charlotte said, looking Bianca square in the eye. 

Bianca blushed and quickly looked away. "Yeah, yeah, don't mention it." 

Back on Seth's boat, he had steered it directly towards Sarah's boat. He glanced to Bayley and gave a wink. "Come on Sparkles!" 

"For adventure," Bayley called, teleporting them off the boat right as it caught fire and collided with Sarah's boat. 

Sarah looked horrified and grabbed the arms of her Horde compatriots, dragging them over the side railing. They all hit the water as the boats exploded together.

"We did it!" Bayley cheered, as she and Seth appeared next to Charlotte and the others. 

Charlotte took a deep breath, or as deep as she could, considering how hard Sasha had hit her. She focused her power through the sword, finally managing to heal the Sea Gate, since it was no longer under attack. She glanced out at the water, watching as drenched Sasha finally broke the surface. 

Sarah who was clinging to a piece of burnt driftwood grabbed the struggling Sasha and began swimming towards the one horde ship that hadn't been completely obliterated by Seth's kamikaze run. Once they reached it, Sarah gently lifted Sasha up onto the deck. 

Sasha was furious and quickly tried to wring the water from her clothes. She hated being wet, and even worse, she hated losing. She sat down on the deck once she was as dry as she could be and began to pout. 

"I am sorry things didn't go to plan," Sarah said offering her a blanket. 

"Nothing ever goes to plan these days," Sasha grumbled, covering up. She hesitated a moment and then extended the side to Sarah, so she could have some of the blankets. 

"We'll get them next time," Sarah promised, gratefully cuddling into Sasha's side to get warm. 

Sasha nodded grimly. "Yes, yes we will. Now get us back to the Fright Zone." 

Charlotte was still watching as Sasha and the Horde disappeared. She turned to Princess Bianca and cleared her throat. "We save Salineas."

"I honestly didn't think you'd do it, but you're a person of your word. I am also a person of my word I guess, so I'll be joining the Princess Alliance." Bianca replied, trying to act like she didn't care one way or the other. "I suppose Seth will be needing a new ship since he lost his saving the city. I suppose I could give him one of mine." 

Seth's whole face lit up. "Really?" 

"Yes, but try not to set this one on fire," Bianca warned, giving him a stern look. 

"No promises, I live to burn it down," Seth exclaimed striking a heroic pose. 

Bianca rolled her eyes. "I regret this already." 

"Well, you won't regret joining our alliance. We need you and we won't let you down." Bayley said, placing a hand on Bianca's shoulder. "I think if we all work together we can turn the tide of rebellion." 

"Bayley is right, together is where we're strongest," Charlotte replied, transforming back from She-Ra. "We have to go back to Brightmoon to let the Queen know you'll help but. I look forward to seeing you again Princess Bianca." 

Bianca nodded. "Thanks to you, Salineas is saved. The Rebellion is welcome back anytime. Seth will give you all a ride home on his new ship. Please don't let him set this one on fire." 

"No promises," Becky called, grabbing Seth by the arm and dragging him to the ship.


	13. Rushing headlong into Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The best friend squad trying to recruit princess Liv does not go as expected.

[i]-At a dark and stormy castle-[/i]

Liv Morgan pursed her lips, staring intently down at the piece of machinery in front of her. She may have been a princess but it was unlikely anybody would ever find her in a dress. More often than not she was dressed in overalls and a shirt that was blotted with oil. Slowly Liv picked up the green little disk and inspected it closer. 

People were difficult, but the machinery was Liv’s language. She felt like she could understand technology better than people. She turned as one of her robots brought her a meal from the kitchen staff. 

The people who worked in Liv’s castle often avoided her if at all possible. Perhaps she tended to sneak up on them,or maybe they just thought she was weird. She supposed it didn’t really matter in the end. 

“I think we’re making progress.” She mused, she pulled a recorder from her pocket and began to speak to it. “Today marks day one hundred and seven, or is it a hundred and six… hmm definitely 106.” Liv tapped her chin thoughtfully. 

“Anyways, the First One's artifact that I have discovered has lots of new information. Most of it is fully intact, there is some corruption, but I do believe that to be minimal.” Liv recorded, sitting down to eat her meal. 

She wanted to focus more on her discovery, but the kitchen staff always got irritated when she didn’t eat what they made her. Truthfully Liv wasn’t sure they cared, but she didn’t want to be rude to them. She ate as fast as she could, she couldn’t deny the call of the technology, it was her mistress. 

What she failed to notice as she continued to make comments about it, was that the green disk had started to turn red. It was actually more corrupted than she had originally anticipated. Slowly red vine-like wires began to sprout from the disk, slithering along the floor until they touched other pieces of tech that Liv had been working on. 

Lightning flashed outside, illuminating the rest of the room as Liv finally turned out. All she saw coming at her was her robot companions, with blood-red eye orbs. 

Trembling, Liv lifted her recorder to her lips. “Note to self… run!”

\----

[I]- Somewhere along a mountainous road- [/i]

“Princess Liv is going to be a great addition to the rebellion. Just you wait and see.” Bayley mused aloud. She had been hyping up the other princess to Charlotte, trying to fill her in on what would hopefully be their next recruit. “If we get her on our side, my mom will be so impressed.” 

Charlotte arched a brow. “You know I am all about getting your mom’s favor, but what’s so impressive about Liv?” She asked curiously. So far Charlotte hadn’t heard anything that would make Liv sound like the MVP of princesses. 

“For one, she’s a brilliant inventor.” Becky interrupted with a proud smile. Becky definitely had a healthy respect for people who could mold and use technology to their benefit. “She makes these super impressive robots, and she’s one of the foremost experts on old First One's tech. She rehabs their old technology and turns it into the different bots that she uses.”

Charlotte had to admit that did sound impressive. “So she’s really smart then?” 

“Yes, and if we convince her to join our site, then she’ll join the rebellion. It’s going to be great.” Bayley said, clapping her hands together excitedly. She wanted to make the Rebellion strong again so that her mother would be proud of her. If getting Liv on their side would help,then she was all for it. 

“Could you imagine if we actually had enough gear and weapons to stand up to the Horde? We need to have weapons that can stand up against their own. Having her on outside could really put the odds in our favor.” Becky explained.

Charlotte didn’t look totally convinced, but she didn’t want to crush her friends’ hopes and dreams. “Well alright then, let’s go see if we can convince her. I’d like to see what kind of things she builds.” Charlotte replied, trying to be supportive of their plan.

“You know I also have been working on some new stuff to help us defeat the Horde,” Becky said proudly. She had been doing her best to create different types of arrows and small weapons that she could supply to the Rebellion. 

“Oh yeah, like what?” Bayley asked her best friend curiously. Becky was always up to something, so it was fun to see the different things that she could come up with. Becky was genuinely one of the smartest people that Bayley knew.

Becky’s face lit up, excited at the prospect of being able to talk about her inventions. “Well, I created a trap arrow, an incendiary arrow, and finally a sonic arrow.” 

Bayley giggled softly. “A sonic arrow? I think that might be a little overkill...” 

“Well you know the Horde has those robots, I thought it might be useful,” Becky said, looking a little crestfallen. 

“Maybe if we get separated in a crowd, it’d be useful,” Charlotte said, trying to hide a smile. 

“I bet you Liv will like my arrows.” Becky let out an indignant huff and started marching towards the castle. She was clearly miffed that they had just made fun of her inventions, that she had spent a lot of time working on. 

Walking ahead of the others, Becky tried to put some distance between them. Traveling together for so long could sometimes be annoying, but she did love her friends. It was only when she was a good distance ahead that she realized the path going forward to Liv’s castle had been blocked. 

Large boulders were strewn about, blocking the rest of the path. Becky glanced up the mountainside with a look of worry. She turned back to warn Charlotte and Bayley about the rockslide and that they needed to be quiet so as to not trigger another one when Charlotte came rushing past.

“Rocks, I got this Becks, stand back!” Charlotte drew the sword of power. “For the Honor of Grayskull!” She yelled. 

Becky flinched at the loud yell, closing her eyes and shaking her head as more rocks began to fall. “I needed you to be quiet.” She muttered under her breath. That was something she was beginning to notice was a trend. Charlotte always threw herself headlong into danger, she didn't think about a plan ahead of time.

Charlotte used her magic sword to cut through the ones blocking the path as well as the ones that were now falling. She made easy work of it and then turned to look at Bayley and Becky with a smug look. “It’s all taken care of, the paths clear.” 

“That was super dangerous. You can’t just use the sword to cut through everything, it won’t solve all your problems.” Becky reasoned, trying to get the blonde to see the logic. 

The former soldier just waved her off. “Relax, I know what I am doing. I spent my whole life without these powers, I am going to use them now that I have them. Just trust me.” 

“Yeah Becky, just trust her,” Bayley said, nodding in agreement with Charlotte. 

Becky just frowned discontentedly. She didn’t think it was a good idea to be the She-Ra powers so much. Magic often came with a price, and Becky wasn’t sure they’d be willing to pay that price when it came down to it. 

Their argument was stopped however when Liv’s castle came into view. It was painted black with purple windows and trimming. For some reason, there was lightning flashing over its location, but the lightning looked magical and purple as well. 

“That’s not ominous at all,” Bayley said swallowing hard. The lightning flashed again, and Bayley shuddered. “Okay, maybe a little ominous.” 

“Whoa, she’s got lightning,” Becky said, sounding super impressed. 

Bayley gave her a pointed look, before teleporting to the top of the castle wall. “The distress beacon is on, something is very wrong,” Bayley called down to her friends. Something definitely was sitting right with the princess of Brightmoon. 

“There have been no reports of the Horde in this area. I think we would have heard something if the castle was under attack.” Charlotte replied, drawing her sword once more. She led Becky through the gateway, meeting up with Bayley who had teleported back down to the ground.

Charlotte continued leading the way into the courtyard but stopped when a sharp pain seemed to pulse in her head. She grabbed her temple and rubbed at it, trying to get the pain to stop. 

“Are you alright?” Bayley asked, placing a hand on her shoulder in concern. 

“Something doesn’t feel right about this place. I don’t know how to describe it, but it feels off.” Charlotte muttered as lightning flashed again overhead. “We need to get out of the courtyard.” 

“We also need to find somebody...anybody.” Becky glanced around, the whole courtyard and castle seemed abandoned. 

“Princess Liv!” Bayley called out, as she began to search. She tried a couple of doors but found them to be locked. “Where could she be? Where is everybody?” 

“We need to be careful, Liv has traps set up all over her castle to protect against intruders. We don’t want to accidentally trigger one.” Becky warned. She hadn’t forgotten how reckless Charlotte had been with the landslide and she definitely didn’t want a repeat of that. 

Suddenly a door opened and a voice from inside called out to the trio. “You need to hide, they’re coming!”

“Who is coming?” Charlotte questioned starting towards the door. “Is it the Horde, we can fight them.” She promised. 

A loud and metallic crunching sound was getting closer. Bayley grabbed Becky and Charlotte by the wrist, dragging them quickly into the safety of the castle and behind the door. 

“Sorry, no time for questions,” Bayley muttered, trying to keep her friends out of danger.

Becky slammed the door shut, trying to lock it. “Where did that person go?” 

“I don’t know… what the heck is that?” Charlotte asked as a robotic creature began to emerge from the shadows. It let out a hiss and then began to charge at them. “I don’t think so!” Charlotte muttered, cleaving the robot in half with her sword. 

“I’m getting sick and tired of things trying to kill us,” Bayley whined, as she closed her eyes. This was definitely not what she had expected when they came to recruit Princess Liv to the alliance. 

The two halves of the robot began to inch their way towards the trio. Becky quickly dispatched the pieces with a well-placed arrow. “It looks like Liv’s design, I don’t understand why it would attack us.” 

Charlotte was done trying to understand why the robot had attacked them. She was done with the weird castle. “Stand back, I’ll find Liv for us.” She said, using her sword to hack away at a locked large wooden door that led further into the castle.

“Wait, it could be a trap!” Becky called, but it was already too late. Once again Charlotte was rushing into things without thinking the consequences through. 

The floor beneath both Charlotte and Bayley’s feet opened up, dropping them down a trapped door shute. Becky let out a cry of frustration and ran to where they had disappeared, in an attempt to save them. 

"Bayley! Charlotte! Where did you guys go? Please co-" Becky's words were cut off as a hand clamped over her mouth and dragged the archer back into the dark shadows.


	14. A glitch in the system

_-In the castle at Dryl-_

Charlotte let out a gasp of agonizing pain as her body collided with the metal sides of the shute she was falling through. Finally, she hit the ground in some sort of cage, but before she could recover Bayley landed right on top of her back, sending her crashing back down to the floor. 

“Ow.”

Bayley let out a whimper herself and wiped the dirt and muck from her face. “That hurt.” 

“You landed on top of me.” Charlotte wheezed, giving her a dirty look. “How do you think I feel?” 

“Sorry about that,” Bayley got to her feet, before slowly dragging Charlotte up as well. She took a moment to digest their surroundings. 

The cell they were in wasn’t very big, large enough to hold the two of them and sort of circular like a bird’s cage. The door to the cage was bolted shut, which gave Bayley some pause. 

“We need to find Becky. We left her up there with those things.” Bayley continued after a minute, wondering if she could perhaps use her powers to teleport. She grabbed onto Charlotte and after a couple of failed tries, managed to teleport them out of the cage. 

“I think we should be careful about teleporting. Becky was saying there are a lot of traps in Liv’s castle, we don’t want to trigger any more of them.” Charlotte said as she rubbed her aching back. 

Bayley nodded in agreement with her friend’s words. “That sounds like a good plan to me.” 

Charlotte began to look around the long corridor they were in. “We need to find Becky as you said. Let’s get to looking.” She said, unsure if they should call out or just start looking.

A loud clanging sound came from the end of the corridor. A few seconds later, something began emerging from the ceiling further down in the dark part. Two red orbs flashed, as whatever it was began to step into the light so that Bayley and Charlotte could see what it was. The red orbs turned out to be the lens from some welding goggles. 

“Not again,” Bayley growled thinking it was a robot. 

“Ohh princesses, thank god you’re here to save me,” Liv announced as she stepped forward, pushing her goggles to the top of her head. 

“Princess Liv?” Bayley’s slowly relaxed, casting a curious glance at the blonde. “You’re alive? I mean it’s so good to see you.” 

“Yeah, we kind of let ourselves in, I hope that’s okay,” Charlotte said rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. She was glad that the princess didn’t seem too angry. 

In fact, Liv seemed to just ignore the fact that they had broken into her castle. “Welcome to Dryl, I am so glad you both are here. Usually, things are calm in Dryl, but right now things are a little bit dangerous. It’s not safe to be out in the open like this.” 

\-----  
  


_\- In kitchen of the castle-_

“Let me go!” Becky yelled as she thrashed about in the arms of the people who had grabbed her. 

“Please keep your voice down, the robots respond to sound.” A voice whispered harshly in her ear. 

Becky stopped fighting and slowly sat up, pulling herself free from the arms of her captors. As she studied them, she realized they were merely castle servants. “Why did you grab me?” Becky asked, making sure to keep her voice quiet. 

“We weren’t trying to hurt you, we were trying to save you. My name is Otis, I’m a cook here.” Otis explained, offering a friendly smile. “This is Mandy and Dana.” He said, pointing to the other two girls in turn, who each gave a little wave. 

“Oh, um thanks. What is going on here?” Becky asked, trying to understand. “Why are the robots attacking people?” 

It was Dana who answered him. “We aren’t really sure, we’re just the kitchen staff.” 

“Do you want some food, Princess Liv only eats blue jolly ranchers and miniature food,” Mandy said, nodding to the tray of food over in the corner. 

Becky glanced around the castle’s kitchen, feeling a little bit better now that she had her bearings about her. She was concerned about the robots still. 

“We have soda if you want that too,” Otis added, trying to give a reassuring smile. 

“As long as you stay quiet, you’ll be safe here with us,” Dana promised. 

“This is a lot to take in,” Becky said. She ate the little cupcake that Mandy offered her and then began to piece together what she knew. She still needed to find out where Charlotte and Bayley had disappeared too. 

Mandy watched Becky with a look of curiosity. “We have enough food to last us for months. It’s tiny food but it’ll make do.” 

“Besides our hope is that the bots will run out of energy sooner or later,” Dana added, though she didn’t sound too certain. 

“We can’t stay hidden away forever,” Becky argued. She wasn’t the type of woman to just sit there and hide. “You have to fight for your castle, this is your home.” 

“We can hide if we want to. We’re not like the princesses, we don’t have powers.” Otis argued, shaking his head. 

Becky’s tracker pad began to beep, so she pulled it from her back pocket. “I think we need to find my friends.” 

“Can you please silence whatever that is? You’ll attract the bots.” Mandy hissed angrily at her. If Becky wanted to be reckless that was one thing, but she was putting everybody else in danger. 

“It tracks energy signals from magic. I can use it to find them.” Becky said, ignoring their request for her to silence it. 

Dana scowled but crept closer to investigate the trackpad. “Are those blinking red dots your friends?” 

A loud banging came outside the kitchen doors, it sounded like the bots were outside trying to break it down. Becky notched an arrow and focused on the door. 

“I am going to take that as a no.” 

\---- 

_\- Back in another part of the castle -_

“You both are lucky that I managed to find you when I did. I specifically designed this castle as a labyrinth to protect it.” Liv said as she led Bayley and Charlotte through the different parts of the castle. “I am the only one who knows my way around.” 

“Does that mean you can help us find our friend Becky? We got separated, and I want to make sure she is okay.” Bayley said, before adding a silent, please. 

“Sure I can help you,” Liv replied with a wide smile, even as she led them down the same hallway. 

Charlotte awkwardly cleared her throat. “I hate to interrupt but I think we passed that same picture a couple of times.” 

Liv froze and then slowly glanced over her shoulder at Charlotte. “You may be right. Normally I use my electronic map to get around, but like my robots, it’s kind of going haywire.” She explained, showing them the red glowing angry face on her map. 

“Yeah, um about that. We have been meaning to talk to you-” 

Bayley’s words were cut off as Charlotte interjected. “Why would you create killer robots in the first place?” 

Liv’s eyes snapped to Charlotte and she tilted her head to the side. “Wow you’re abnormally tall, and your sword. It isn’t like any sword I have seen before, is it First One’s tech? May I touch it please?” Liv asked, reaching out a hand to touch the sword of power. 

“Thank you, I think? And no, you may not touch the sword right now.” Charlotte said, stepping away from Liv’s reach. 

Bayley stepped between them, placing her hands on Liv’s shoulders and giving her a little shake. “Please focus, the robots, why are they evil?” 

“They didn’t start that way,” Liv said quietly after a moment. “Normally my robots are super useful and helpful to me. They do almost everything for me.” She admitted. 

“Everything?” 

Liv nodded, a smile tugging at her lips. “They clean, they help cook, they’re sound activated.” She said, her voice starting to raise an octave to call them. 

Bayley slapped her hand over Liv’s mouth and shook her head. “Maybe we shouldn’t call them right now? If they’re malfunctioning we could get hurt.” She was trying to keep her tone soft, but it was clear she was getting irritated.

The sound of metal clanging was starting to echo around the hallways. Bayley groaned in frustration as Liv pulled away from her and Charlotte, jogging towards a large cleaning robot as it turned the corner. 

“Maybe we could help it. It needs us.” Liv said, launching herself up onto the machine, intent on fixing it. 

The robot had other ideas however as it waved its mechanical claw arm and sent Liv flying into the wall. Charlotte winced at the sound of Liv’s body colliding with the wall. She drew her sword and charged the robotic machine. Charlotte drove the Sword of Power into the robot’s chest, trying to stop it. 

As the sword sunk into the robot, the red vine-like corruption spread from the robot up along the hilt. Charlotte froze for a second, watching the blood-colored tentacles seep into the gemstone on the sword’s hilt. Letting out a war cry, Charlotte began to stab the robot over and over again with the sword. 

Bayley grabbed Charlotte’s arm, trying to pull her back from the fight. She looked startled to see Charlotte’s blue eyes, blood red. “Charlotte. She-Ra, you have to stop.” She pleaded with the former Horde soldier. 

The virus from the sword seemed to be slowly creeping up Charlotte's fingers, crawling its way up to her wrist and forearms. Liv and Bayley were watching with matching horrified expressions. 

"You have to turn it off, let go of the sword Charlotte." Bayley pleaded, trying to rescue her. She didn't know what was happening, but she couldn't bear the thought of her friend getting hurt. Sure, Charlotte had an impulsive side, but she wasn't outright violent like the sword was making her. 

Bayley took a deep breath and then as hard as she could, kicked Charlotte in the stomach. The blonde's grip on the sword slipped, and Bayley took the opportunity to disarm her friend and fling the sword of power as far away from them as she could. Charlotte let out a grunt of pain, the red haze slowly evaporating from her. Then she dropped to her knees, shifting out of her She-Ra form as she passed out. Bayley caught her and slowly lowered her to the ground the rest of the way. 

"Is she okay?" Liv asked, edging closer to look at the passed out hero. 

"I am not sure, but something is now wrong with her sword," Bayley said eyeing Charlotte's weapon warily. 

\-----  
_  
\- Back in the castle's kitchen -_

The pounding outside the kitchen door was getting worse as it seemed more robots were beginning to join the fray. Dana, Otis, and Mandy were busy trying to find weapons and other things to defend themselves with. 

"Are you sure about this? It sounds like they are about to break in." Otis said, armed with a cookie tray and a spatula. 

Becky, who had been doing her best to engineer a sort of makeshift weapon, shrugged. "I don't know if it will work but I am hoping so. I am almost done." She replied, trying to sound calm despite how nervous she felt. 

"You guys! They are right outside, they are going to break in!" Dana screeched. 

"Open the door, this is gonna work," Becky promised. 

Dana shot her a skeptical look but then flung open the door. The robots charged forward and Becky notched an arrow, waiting until the bots were almost on Mandy, before firing her arrow. The arrow flew true, arcing its way across the kitchen. Becky had attached a rope to it, which served as a tripwire, sending some of the robots crashing into the kitchen's furnace. 

One of the larger robots managed to stay standing however and spun around, stalking towards Becky. Becky ducked out of the way, rolling under its outstretched arm, and notched another arrow. She fired it into the bot's face, watching as it electrocuted and short-circuited the creature. 

"That was horrifying," Dana muttered, only to turn around and be grappled by a smaller bot. 

"Save her!" Otis pleaded with Becky. "Use one of your arrows or something."

"If I use my sonic arrow it will only draw more bots." Becky pointed out, feeling guilty. 

"Ugh, hold on Dana." It was at that moment that Mandy struck, hitting the robot as hard as she could with Otis's cookie tray. Mandy hit the bot hard enough that it completely knocked its head from its shoulders. 

Becky blinked in surprise but nodded her approval. "That was a good save." 

Mandy was just shocked by the fact that she had actually managed to save Dana. "I did that, I actually saved her." 

Dana hugged her tightly. "Thank you." 

"Nice work, now let's keep moving, we have to find my friends and get out of here. There is no telling when the robots will be coming back." Becky gestured for them to follow her, as she led the way out of the kitchen. She could see blinking blue dots on the screen and she was hoping it was her friends.

**Author's Note:**

> So season 5 of She-ra wrecked me, but while watching it and shipping the heck out of Catradora, I realized that Sasha Banks would totally be Catra and Charlotte would be Adora. So hence this is where I started writing the idea. My idea is to kind of follow the plotline of She-ra, but also kind of do my own thing with some of the stuff. 
> 
> This is for my friend Lindsey, who told me she would read the heck out of my story.


End file.
